Abstract
Chalcogenide glass fibers are promising photonic tools to develop Fiber Evanescent Wave Spectroscopy (FEWS) optical sensors working in the mid-infrared region. Numerous pioneering works have already been carried out showing their efficiency, especially for bio-medical applications. Nevertheless, this technology remains confined to academic studies at the laboratory scale because chalcogenide glass fibers are difficult to shape to produce reliable, sensitive and compact sensors. In this paper, a new method for designing and fabricating a compact and robust sensing head with a selenide glass fiber is described. Compact looped sensing heads with diameter equal to 2 mm were thus shaped. This represents an outstanding achievement considering the brittleness of such uncoated fibers. FEWS experiments were implemented using alcoholic solutions as target samples showing that the sensitivity is higher than with the routinely used classical fiber. It is also shown that the best compromise in term of sensitivity is to fabricate a sensing head including two full loops. From a mechanical point of view, the breaking loads of the loop shaped head are also much higher than with classical fiber. Finally, this achievement paves the way for the use of mid-infrared technology during in situ and even in vivo medical operations. Indeed, is is now possible to slide a chalcogenide glass fiber in the operating channel of a standard 2.8 mm diameter catheter.
Highlights
Chalcogenide glasses are original materials built up using the chalcogens, i.e., sulfur, selenium or/and tellurium, mixed with other elements close to them in the periodic chart such as arsenic, antimony, germanium, etc
Some compact sensing heads have been fabricated with chalcogenide glass optical fibers
It has been shown that this thermo-mechanical shaping does not degrade the sensitivity of the Fiber Evanescent Wave Spectroscopy (FEWS) experiments which are even higher than with classical fibers
Summary
Chalcogenide glasses are original materials built up using the chalcogens, i.e., sulfur, selenium or/and tellurium, mixed with other elements close to them in the periodic chart such as arsenic, antimony, germanium, etc. Chalcogenide glasses are matchless materials for the development of optical sensors working in the mid-infrared region [3,4] At this time, the most effective application at an industrial level concerns the development of molded lenses for thermal imaging systems. Numerous exploratory works have been carried out in different application domains, such as: detection of pollutants in waste water [12,13], following chemical or industrial processes [14,15,16], detection of bacterial contaminations in food [17], monitoring of bacterial biofilm spread [18], study of tumorous tissues [19,20], and of biological liquids such as serum, blood or plasma [21] These promising results led to the foundation of a company, DIAFIR (Rennes, France), working on the shaping of chalcogenide glass fiber for bio-medical applications. The FEWS measurement sensitivity of the new chalcogenide glass fiber heads was evaluated, together with their mechanical behavior
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