INDEX optical sensor

Figure 7. Concept of optical sensor based on spectroscopy of guided modes. A change in the refractive index alters propagation constant of a guided mode.

ULTRACOMPACT OPTICAL SENSORS BASED ON HIGH INDEX-CONTRAST PHOTONIC STRUCTURES... 

Newer techniques for measuring the refractive index allow for instantaneous, real-time measurement in process streams, or alternatively, a special continuous-flow sample well can be installed on bench top instruments. Small, pocket-sized refractometers also make held measurement very simple and reliable. Fiber optic sensors find uses in biomedical applications. 

From a general point of view, a chemical sensor is a device capable of continuously monitoring the concentration of an analyte. The two main classes are electrochemical sensors and optical chemical sensors. The latter are based on the measurement of changes in an optical quantity refractive index, light scattering, reflectance, absorbance, fluorescence, chemiluminescence, etc. For remote sensing, an optical fiber is used, and the optical sensor is then called an optode because of... 

Surface plasmon resonance-MS Coupled to optical sensor surface Flow across sensor surface Change in surface refractive index to detect presence of a binding partner for an immobilized target MS identifies the binding partner (Sonksenetal., 1998 Nelson Krone, 1999)... 

Seo et al. (1999) used a planar optic biosensor that measures the phase shift variation in refractive index due to antigen binding to antibody. In this method, they were able to detect S. enterica serovar T) himurium with a detection limit of 1 x 10 cfu/ml. When chicken carcass fluid was inoculated with 20 cfu/ml, the sensor was able to detect this pathogen after 12 h of nonselective enrichment. A compact fiber optic sensor was also used for detection of S. T) himurium at a detection limit of 1 X 10" cfu/ml (Zhou et al., 1997, 1998) however, its efficacy with food samples is unproven. Later, Kramer and Lim (2004) used the fiber optic sensor, RAPTOR , to detect this pathogen from spent irrigation water for alfalfa sprouts. They showed that the system can be used to detect Salmonella spiked at 50 cfu/g seeds. An evanescent wave-based multianalyte array biosensor (MAAB) was also employed for successful testing of chicken excreta and various food samples (sausage, cantaloupe, egg, sprout, and chicken carcass) for S. T) himurium (Taitt et ah, 2004). While some samples exhibited interference with the assay, overall, the detection limit for this system was reported to be 8 x 10 cfu/g. 

The fiber optic sensors utilize an extrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometer to spectrally modulate light in proportion to pressure, temperature, or refractive index variations. Because they are based on spectral modulation instead of amplitude modulation, they are not affected by such common problems as fiber bending, connector losses, and aging. 

The second (real) term accounts for the exponential decay of the electric field intensity in the direction normal to the interface. The reflected beam combines with the incident beam, forming a standing electromagnetic wave at the interface (Fig. 9.9). The electric field that penetrates to the optically rarer medium of refractive index n, the evanescent field, plays a critical role in many optical sensors based on the waveguiding principle. Its depth of penetration dv is defined as the distance at which the initial intensity Eq decays to 1/e of its value. Thus from (9.18), dv is... 

Fig. 1 Chemical interaction mechanisms, basic components of the optical sensor instrumentation and their operation. Mechanisms direct measurement of chemical compounds that exhibit spectroscopic properties (1 A) and measurement of light originating from a chemical or a biological reaction in chemiluminescent or bioluminescent phenomena (IB) 2 optodes based on the interaction of indicators and labels with light, which are immobilized in a support and sensors that modify the intrinsic physical or chemical properties of a waveguide (refractive index, phase, etc.) as a result of the presence of the analyte (3A), a recognition element (35), an intermediate analyte (3C) or an indicator (3D)...

The interaction phenomenon of the analyte with radiation is governed or modifies the principle on which light is transmitted through the waveguide. Depending on that interaction, we can differentiate three basic types of intrinsic optical sensors [82] refractive-index-type sensors, luminescence-based sensors and absorption-type sensors. 

Refractive-index-type sensors present poor specificity in their response and instabilities due to temperature or pressure variations and on the other hand, interferometric sensors are complex, but more sensitive than other integrated chemo-optical evanescent-field-based sensors. 

They are technologically easier to construct than conventional planar waveguides and the fabrication processes are more economic and rugged. Conventional waveguides need thicker substrates (10 times thicker) than ARROW structures to reach equivalent losses in this layer. Moreover, they are less suitable to develop optical sensors based on the core propagation, because if the membrane refractive index was the same, a thickness of about 100 nm would be needed to achieve single-mode behavior in the transversal direction to the layers. ARROWS have a 4-pm-thick core,... 

A chemical sensor is a device that transforms chemical information into an analytically useful signal. Chemical sensors contain two basic functional units a receptor part and a transducer part. The receptor part is usually a sensitive layer, therefore a well founded knowledge about the mechanism of interaction of the analytes of interest and the selected sensitive layer has to be achieved. Various optical methods have been exploited in chemical sensors to transform the spectral information into useful signals which can be interpreted as chemical information about the analytes [1]. These are either reflectometric or refractometric methods. Optical sensors based on reflectometry are reflectometric interference spectroscopy (RIfS) [2] and ellipsometry [3,4], Evanescent field techniques, which are sensitive to changes in the refractive index, open a wide variety of optical detection principles [5] such as surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy (SPR) [6—8], Mach-Zehnder interferometer [9], Young interferometer [10], grating coupler [11] or resonant mirror [12] devices. All these optical... 

Sensor Principles Based on High-Refractive-Index Optical Waveguides... 

Meriaudeau F, Wig A, Passian A et al (2000) Gold island fiber optical sensor for refractive index sensing. Sensors Actuators B Chem 69 51057... 

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