Girijavallabhan, C P; Nampoori, V P N; Radhakrishnan, P; Thomas Lee, S; Suresh, Kumar P; Unnikrishnan, K P; Sugunan, S(INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS PUBLISHING, April 24, 2003)
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Abstract:
In this communication, we discuss the details of fabricating an off-line fibre
optic sensor (FOS) based on evanescent wave absorption for detecting trace
amounts of Fe3+ in water. Two types of FOS are developed; one type uses
the unclad portion of a multimode silica fibre as the sensing region whereas
the other employs the microbent portion of a multimode plastic fibre as the
sensing region. Sensing is performed by measuring the absorption of the
evanescent wave in a reagent medium surrounding the sensing region. To
evaluate the relative merits of the two types of FOS in Fe3+ sensing, a
comparative study of the sensors is made, which reveals the superiority of
the latter in many respects, such as smaller sensing length, use of a double
detection scheme (for detecting both core and cladding modes) and higher
sensitivity of cladding mode detection at an intermediate range of
concentration along with the added advantage that plastic fibres are
inexpensive. A detection limit of 1 ppb is observed in both types of fibre and
the range of detection can be as large as 1 ppb–50 ppm. All the
measurements are carried out using a LabVIEW set-up.
Thomas Lee, S; Nampoori, V P N; Vallabhan, C P G; Radhakrishnan, P; Geetha, K(Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers, 2002)
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Abstract:
Microbent optical fibers are potential candidates for evanescent wave sensing. We investigate the behavior of a permanently microbent fiber optic sensor when it is immersed in an absorbing medium. Two distinct detection schemes, namely, bright-field and dark-field detection configuration, are employed for the measurements. The optical power propagating through the sensor is found to vary in a logarithmic fashion with the concentration of the absorbing species in the surrounding medium. We observe that the sensitivity of the setup is dependent on the bending amplitude and length of the microbend region for the bright-field detection scheme, while it is relatively independent of both for the dark-field detection configuration. This feature can be exploited in compact sensor designs where reduction of the sensing region length is possible without sacrificing sensitivity.
Thomas Lee, S; Jose, Gin; Nampoori, V P N; Vallabhan, C P G; Unnikrishnan, N V; Radhakrishnan, P(IOP Publishing, 2001)
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Abstract:
The fabrication and characterization of a fibre optic pH sensor based on
evanescent wave absorption is presented. The unclad portion of a
multi-mode optical fibre is coated with a pH sensitive dye, which is
immobilized by the sol–gel route. The sensitivity of the device has been
found to increase when multiple sol–gel coatings are used as the sensing
region. The dynamic range and the temporal response of the sensor are
investigated for two different dyes, namely bromocresol purple and
bromocresol green. The performance of the device is evaluated in terms of
the results obtained during actual measurements.
Girijavallabhan, C P; Radhakrishnan, P; Nampoori, V P N; Thomas Lee, S; Jose, Gin; Unnikrishnan, N V(Journal of Optics A : Pure and Applied Optics, July 12, 2001)
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Abstract:
The fabrication and characterization of a fibre optic pH sensor based on
evanescent wave absorption is presented. The unclad portion of a
multi-mode optical fibre is coated with a pH sensitive dye, which is
immobilized by the sol–gel route. The sensitivity of the device has been
found to increase when multiple sol–gel coatings are used as the sensing
region. The dynamic range and the temporal response of the sensor are
investigated for two different dyes, namely bromocresol purple and
bromocresol green. The performance of the device is evaluated in terms of
the results obtained during actual measurements