Abstract
A unique type of refractive index (RI) sensor is proposed using a dual Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) structure based on side-hole fibers (SHFs). The MZI structure contains two single-mode fibers (SMFs), two coreless fiber (CLF) sections and an SHF section, which are spliced together in the order of SMF-CLF-SHF-CLF-SMF. The SMFs and the CLFs enable light lead in/out and beam splitting/combining, respectively. As a special feature of the structure, one hole of SHF is exposed for liquid filling and to form two MZIs as well. Three types of sensors are fabricated, namely S1, S2 and S3. Numerical simulation and experimental studies have been conducted to characterize the sensing performance. The RI sensitivity of the S1 using the ∼550 μm long SHF section reaches 14,000 nm/RIU. When a shorter SHF section is used in S2, the detectable RI range is broadened due to larger FSR. When the closed hole of SHF in S3 is filled with liquid to introduce the Vernier effect, the sensitivity can be further enhanced to over 44,000 nm/RIU (i.e., Refractive Index Unit), which corresponds to the detection limit at the level of 1.0 × 10−5 RIU. This sensor design is original and easy to package, which gives it potential for label-free biochemical analyses.
Highlights
Refractive index (RI) sensing of liquids is essential for chemical and biological experiments because the refractive index (RI) directly reflects the composition changes of liquids
When the closed hole of side-hole fibers (SHFs) in S3 is filled with liquid to introduce the Vernier effect, the sensitivity can be further enhanced to over 44,000 nm/RIU (i.e., Refractive Index Unit), which corresponds to the detection limit at the level of 1.0 × 10−5 RIU
The major difference lies in the values of the free spectrum range (FSR) (38.73 nm in the calculation versus 40.92 nm in the experiment), which may be caused by the difference between the real RI and the RI assumed for the simulations, as well as the inaccurate measurement of the length of the SHF
Summary
Refractive index (RI) sensing of liquids is essential for chemical and biological experiments because the RI directly reflects the composition changes of liquids. Refractometers, the RI sensors based on optical fibers offer many advantages, such as immunity to electromagnetic interference, high sensitivity, and low cost, and when biological sensing is considered – easy sample disposal. Fiber-based Mach-Zehnder (MZI) [11]–[14] and Michelson [15], [16] interferometers are extensively studied for RI sensing. When the MZI is formed by using a microcavity fabricated in an optical fiber [17], exceptional sensitivity can be obtained due to the tight optical confinement of the microcavity, for example, a recent study showed a sensitivity of over 10,000 nm/RIU (i.e., Refractive Index Unit) [18]. The air hole region in an MOF acts as a small-volume chemical reactor and is very promising for chemical sensing and photochemistry
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