Liquid-filled Hollow-core Photonic Crystal Fiber Research Articles

Flying particle microlaser and temperature sensor in hollow-core photonic crystal fiber.

Whispering-gallery mode (WGM) resonators combine small optical mode volumes with narrow resonance linewidths, making them exciting platforms for a variety of applications. Here we report a flying WGM microlaser, realized by optically trapping a dye-doped microparticle within a liquid-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF) using a CW laser and then pumping it with a pulsed excitation laser whose wavelength matches the absorption band of the dye. The laser emits into core-guided modes that can be detected at the endfaces of the HC-PCF. Using radiation forces, the microlaser can be freely propelled along the HC-PCF over multi-centimeter distances-orders of magnitude farther than in previous experiments where tweezers and fiber traps were used. The system can be used to measure temperature with high spatial resolution, by exploiting the temperature-dependent frequency shift of the lasing modes, and may also permit precise delivery of light to remote locations.

Raman-tailored photonic crystal fiber for telecom band photon-pair generation.

We report on the experimental characterization of a novel nonlinear liquid-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber for the generation of photon pairs at a telecommunication wavelength through spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM). We show that the optimization procedure in view of this application links the choice of the nonlinear liquid to the design parameters of the fiber, and we give an example of such an optimization at telecom wavelengths. Combining the modeling of the fiber and classical characterization techniques at these wavelengths, we identify for the chosen fiber and liquid combination SFWM phase-matching frequency ranges with no Raman scattering noise contamination. This is a first step toward obtaining a telecom band fibered photon-pair source with a high signal-to-noise ratio.

Broadband, Lensless, and Optomechanically Stabilized Coupling into Microfluidic Hollow-Core Photonic Crystal Fiber Using Glass Nanospike

We report a novel technique for launching broadband laser light into liquid-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF). It uniquely offers self-alignment and self-stabilization via optomechanical trapping of a fused silica nanospike, fabricated by thermally tapering and chemically etching a single mode fiber into a tip diameter of 350 nm. We show that a trapping laser, delivering ~300 mW at 1064 nm, can be used to optically align and stably maintain the nanospike at the core center. Once this is done, a broadband supercontinuum beam (~575 to 1064 nm) can be efficiently and close to achromatically launched in the HC-PCF. The system is robust against liquid-flow in either direction inside the HC-PCF and the Fresnel back-reflections are reduced to negligible levels compared to free-space launching or butt-coupling. The results are of potential relevance for any application where the efficient delivery of broadband light into liquid-core waveguides is desired.

Fluorescence-based remote irradiation sensor in liquid-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber

We report an irradiation sensor based on a fluorescent “flying particle” that is optically trapped and propelled inside the core of a water-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber. When the moving particle passes through an irradiated region, its emitted fluorescence is captured by guided modes of the fiber core and so can be monitored using a filtered photodiode placed at the fiber end. The particle speed and position can be precisely monitored using in-fiber Doppler velocimetry, allowing the irradiation profile to be measured to a spatial resolution of ∼10 μm. The spectral response can be readily adjusted by appropriate choice of particle material. Using dye-doped polystyrene particles, we demonstrate detection of green (532 nm) and ultraviolet (340 nm) light.

Long‐distance laser propulsion and deformation‐ monitoring of cells in optofluidic photonic crystal fiber

We introduce a unique method for laser-propelling individual cells over distances of 10s of cm through stationary liquid in a microfluidic channel. This is achieved by using liquid-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF). HC-PCF provides low-loss light guidance in a well-defined single mode, resulting in highly uniform optical trapping and propulsive forces in the core which at the same time acts as a microfluidic channel. Cells are trapped laterally at the center of the core, typically several microns away from the glass interface, which eliminates adherence effects and external perturbations. During propagation, the velocity of the cells is conveniently monitored using a non-imaging Doppler velocimetry technique. Dynamic changes in velocity at constant optical powers up to 350 mW indicate stress-induced changes in the shape of the cells, which is confirmed by bright-field microscopy. Our results suggest that HC-PCF will be useful as a new tool for the study of single-cell biomechanics.

Hollow-core photonic crystal fiber based multifunctional optical system for trapping, position sensing, and detection of fluorescent particles

We demonstrate a novel multifunctional optical system that is capable of trapping, imaging, position sensing, and fluorescence detection of micrometer-sized fluorescent test particles using hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF). This multifunctional optical system for trapping, position sensing, and fluorescent detection is designed such that a near-IR laser light is used to create an optical trap across a liquid-filled HC-PCF, and a 473 nm laser is employed as a source for fluorescence excitation. This proposed system and the obtained results are expected to significantly enable an efficient integrated trapping platform employing HC-PCF for diagnostic biomedical applications.

An integrated hollow-core photonic crystal fiber transverse optical trapping system for optical manipulation and detection

Optical manipulation, separation, and detection of biological cells have immense potential biomedical applications, for example, in disease detection. In this paper, we present optical manipulation and detection of micron sized fluorescent particles inside hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF) by transverse optical trapping. An optical trapping system is designed where a near-infrared laser light is focused using a microscope objective to create an optical trap across a liquid-filled HC-PCF. The fluorescent microsphere particles trapped in the core of HC-PCF using the laser induced optical force further undergo imaging and fluorescence spectroscopic analysis. It is illustrated that the proposed method can track the particle into a different medium using the optical trap as well. The obtained results indicate that this proposed method has tangible potential for developing HC-PCF based lab-on-a-chip bio/chemical sensors capable of detecting reagents in ultra low sample volumes.

Efficient and short-range light coupling to index-matched liquid-filled hole in a solid-core photonic crystal fiber

A photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with a section of one of the holes next to the solid core filled with an index-matched liquid is studied. Liquid filling alters the core geometry, which locally comprises the original silica core, the liquid channel and the silica around it. It is demonstrated that when light reaches the filled section, it periodically and efficiently couples to the liquid, via the excitation of a number of modes of the composite core, with coupling lengths ranging from tens to hundreds of microns. The resulting modal-interference-modulated spectrum shows temperature sensitivity as high as 5.35 nm/°C. The proposed waveguide geometry presents itself as an interesting way to pump and/or to probe liquid media within the fiber, combining advantages usually found separately in liquid-filled hollow-core PCFs (high light-liquid overlap) and in solid-core PCFs (low insertion losses). Therefore, pumping and luminescence guiding with a PCF filled with a Rhodamine solution is also demonstrated.

Optofluidic immobility of particles trapped in liquid-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber

We study the conditions under which a particle, laser-guided in a vertically-oriented hollow-core photonic crystal fiber filled with liquid, can be kept stationary against a microfluidic counter-flow. An immobility parameter-the fluid flow rate required to immobilize a particle against the radiation force produced by unit guided optical power-is introduced to quantify the conditions under which this occurs, including radiation, viscous and gravity forces. Measurements show that this parameter depends strongly on the ratio of particle radius a to core radius R, peaking at an intermediate value of a/R. The results follow fairly well the theoretical estimates of the optical (calculated approximately using a ray optics approach) and numerically simulated drag forces. We suggest that the system has potential applications in, e.g., measurement of the diameter, refractive index and density of particles, synthesis and biomedical research.

Partially liquid-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber polarizer

A compact fiber polarizer is demonstrated by the filling of selected air holes of a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with a liquid. The liquid-filling results in an asymmetric waveguide structure, leading to a large polarization dependent loss. A 6 mm long ethanol-filled PCF exhibits a polarization extinction ratio of ∼18 dB over a wavelength range from 1480 nm to 1600 nm.

Photochemistry in Photonic Crystal Fiber Nanoreactors

We report the use of a liquid-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (PCF) as a highly controlled photochemical reactor. Hollow-core PCFs have several major advantages over conventional sample cells: the sample volume per optical path length is very small (2.8 nL cm(-1) in the fiber used), long optical path lengths are possible as a result of very low intrinsic waveguide loss, and furthermore the light travels in a diffractionless single mode with a constant transverse intensity profile. As a proof of principle, the (very low) quantum yield of the photochemical conversion of vitamin B(12), cyanocobalamin (CNCbl) to hydroxocobalamin ([H(2)OCbl](+)) in aqueous solution was measured for several pH values from 2.5 to 7.5. The dynamics of the actively induced reaction were monitored in real-time by broadband absorption spectroscopy. The PCF nanoreactor required ten thousand times less sample volume compared to conventional techniques. Furthermore, the enhanced sensitivity and optical pump intensity implied that even systems with very small quantum yields can be measured very quickly--in our experiments one thousand times faster than in a conventional cuvette.