Planar optical waveguides for civil and military applications

Abstract

There is significant military and civil interest in being able to detect chemical species adsorbed from air or present in aqueous solutions. Planar optical waveguide transmission properties are sensitive to changes in parameters such as refractive index or absorption and to light-emitting processes such as fluorescence. These changes modulate light travelling in optical waveguides, and so may be used as sensors for detecting biological and chemical agents, non-ionizing and ionizing electromagnetic radiation. Several waveguide systems have been studied theoretically and experimentally, and their responses to basic influences such as alcohol and UV radiation, and gamma rays determined.