Optical fibres methods

The running of telephone lines through power lines is long discontinued. They are now run on separate structures within a city and nearby areas at audio frequency (— 0.3-3.4 kHz), and maintain enough distance from HT power distribution lines. They are therefore almost unaffected from such disturbances. Nevertheless, interferences must be kept in mind when installing these lines so that they are out of the inductive interference zone of the power lines. The latest method in the field of communications to avoid disturbances is to use underground optical fibre cables, where possible, as discussed later. Optical fibre cables are totally immune to such disturbances. 

The pH optical fiber sensor without any pH-sensitive dye was also described70. Porous silica layer made by the sol-gel method was cladded onto optical fibre core and was exploited as the optical transducer. Acid-base properties of silica surface caused that the surface charge of silica changed with pH of the solution. For example saturation of the sol-gel layer with cations leads to an increase of the electron density of the film, hence, the refractive index of the film. Since the surface charge of silica depends on pH, the refractive index of silica film varies also with pH. Thus, changes of... 

This chapter reviews the development of optical gas sensors, starting with an initial emphasis on optical-fibre remoted techniques and finishing with a particular focus on our own group s work on highly selective methods using correlation spectroscopy. This latter section includes extensive theoretical modelling of a correlation spectroscopy method, and compares theory with practice for a CO2 sensor. 

A general review of optical gas sensing techniques, particularly optical fibre-based ones, has been presented to set the scene, before finishing with a more detailed description of our own methods using correlation... 

Lehaitre et al. [23] have described a fibre-optic spectrophotometric method for the in situ measurement of biological and chemical species. This instrument can measure phytoplanktonic species, and the potential for chemical measurement such as dissolved carbon dioxide is analysed. 

The application of near-IR spectroscopy for real-time monitoring of glucose, lactic acid, acetic acid and biomass in liquid cultures of microorganisms of the genera Lactobacillus and Staphylococcus has been recently published [76]. The NIR spectrum acquired by the optical-fibre probe immersed in the culture is exploited using a partial least squares (PLS) calibration step, a classical method for IR techniques. 

Optical fibres need to be free of impurities such as transition metal ions (see Chapter 8) and conventional methods of preparing silica glasses are inadequate. The sol-gel process is one way of forming fibres of sufficient purity (chemical vapour deposition. Section 3.7, is another). These processes use volatile compounds of silicon which are more easily purified, for example by fractional distillation, than silica. It is possible to produce silica fibres using a method similar to that studied in the nineteenth century, but with the geldrying time reduced from a year to a few days. Liquid silicon alkoxide (Si(OR)4), where R is methyl, ethyl, or propyl, is hydrolysed by mixing with water. 

The ability of optical fibres to transmit light signals has revolutionised the method of transmitting information and medical diagnostics. Now, doctors can actually peep into the faulty part of your body and repair it without a major surgery. 

SNOM combines the optical contrast with a high lateral resolution of SPMs [55,56]. Scanning a surface with a sharp optical fibre tip within the range of the optical near field makes it possible to overcome the optical diffraction limit that restricts the resolution of conventional optical microscopy. Moreover, the SNOM probe operates at a finite distance from the surface, so that damage and distortion of delicate samples can be eliminated. The drawback of SNOM compared to other SPM methods is its relatively low resolution - around tens of nanometers [62,63]. 

Solvent-free conditions can be employed according to three main methods (a) using only neat reactants (b) reactants adsorbed onto solid supports or (c) reactants in the presence of phase transfer catalysts (in the case of anionic reactions). Besides the apparent potential benefits in solvent usage, reactions can be conducted conveniently and rapidly, often without temperature measurement in domestic microwave ovens. However, they now are often carried out under more precisely controlled conditions using monomode reactors initially introduced by the former French manufacturer Prolabo. Nowadays, several systems are available that provide facilities for the accurate measurement and monitoring of temperature throughout the reaction by modulation of emitted power with an infrared detector or an optical fibre. 

Two methods for the covalent immobilization of single-stranded DNA onto fused silica optical fibres using various linkers for the development of biosensors were reported by Krull and co-workers [22]. One method involved a hydrophobic and the other a hydrophilic spacer arm and it was determined which linker would provide the best immobilization efficiency, hybridization kinetics, and minimal non-specific adsorption to the surface. 

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