Fibre optical seals

Set of mechanical, electronic and fibre optic seals. Maintenance of integrity of Safeguards equipment and/or data during unattended period at a facility (e.g. over night during special inspections). 

During transport, OPCW custody of samples is maintained by the OPCW seals (fibre optical, frangible) on the primary, secondary, and intermediate packaging containers. The integrity of these seals ensures the integrity of the samples in regard to tampering. 

The development of small solid state lasers used in consumer products may be compatible with lab-on-a-chip concepts. Zeev (2003) proposes in a patent to use optical irradiance to activate chemical reactions, with laser energy taken along optical fibres to one or more irradiators that are in contact with the reagents of chemical reactions. There are, of course, safety benefits in taking energy into sealed containers this way. The theory behind laser catalysis is explained in Vardi and Shapiro (1998). 

The probe, illustrated in Figure 7, consists of a total of 21 optical fibres (200 pm diameter, NA = 0.2) arranged in concentric bundles. The centre bundle contains seven fluorescence excitation fibres and twelve fluorescence collection fibres. At the distal end of the probe the fibres which excite and collect fluorescence are sealed with a quartz shield. This shield is placed in contact with the sample surface, and ensures that the area from which fluorescence is collected is the same as that directly illuminated. The reflectance fibres are flush with the tip of the central shield. Similar attempts have been previously described in the literature. 

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