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High-Resolution Guided-Wave Optical Sensors

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Optical Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 April 2025 | Viewed by 5040

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL 35899, USA
Interests: precision metrology with femtosecond frequency combs; fiber optic sensors; ultrafast spectroscopy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Guided-wave optical sensors (GWOSs) have become one of the most active research areas in the field of sensors. GWOSs encompass a wide range of modalities, including fiber sensors, optical waveguide sensors, microresonators, nanophotonic sensors, plasmonic sensors, microfluidics, etc. A common theme across all these different fields of research is the pursuit of ever-decreasing signal levels or, in other words, higher resolutions. Such an effort is often met with fundamental limitations, such as thermal noises and plasmonic losses, as well as technological challenges, such as restrictions caused by material properties and fabrication capabilities. Understanding, mitigating, and overcoming these limitations and challenges will lead to breakthroughs in sensor resolutions and open up even broader applications.

This Special Issue aims to provide a forum for researchers and engineers around the world to share their latest work on new concepts, strategies, schemes, techniques, and experimental demonstrations of high-resolution GWOSs. Original research and review articles are both invited. Specific topical areas include but are not limited to:

  • Fiber-optic sensors;
  • Si nanophotonic sensors;
  • Sensors based on microresonators;
  • Plasmonic sensors;
  • Photonic crystal sensors;
  • Metamaterial sensors;
  • Microfluidic sensors.

Dr. Lingze Duan
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • fiber sensors
  • microresonators
  • plasmonics
  • nanophotonics
  • microfluidics
  • metamaterial
  • photonic crystal
  • high resolution

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

9 pages, 6653 KiB  
Communication
Design of a High Q-Factor Label-Free Optical Biosensor Based on a Photonic Crystal Coupled Cavity Waveguide
by Reyhaneh Jannesari, Gerald Pühringer, Gerald Stocker, Thomas Grille and Bernhard Jakoby
Sensors 2024, 24(1), 193; https://doi.org/10.3390/s24010193 - 28 Dec 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 981
Abstract
In recent years, there has been a significant increase in research into silicon-based on-chip sensing. In this paper, a coupled cavity waveguide (CCW) based on a slab photonic crystal structure was designed for use as a label-free biosensor. The photonic crystal consisted of [...] Read more.
In recent years, there has been a significant increase in research into silicon-based on-chip sensing. In this paper, a coupled cavity waveguide (CCW) based on a slab photonic crystal structure was designed for use as a label-free biosensor. The photonic crystal consisted of holes arranged in a triangular lattice. The incorporation of defects can be used to design sensor devices, which are highly sensitive to even slight alterations in the refractive index with a small quantity of analyte. The plane wave expansion method (PWE) was used to study the dispersion and profile of the CCW modes, and the finite difference time domain (FDTD) technique was used to study the transmission spectrum, quality factor, and sensitivity. We present an analysis of adiabatically coupling light into a coupled cavity waveguide. The results of the simulation indicated that a sensitivity of 203 nm/RIU and a quality factor of 13,360 could be achieved when the refractive indices were in the range of 1.33 to 1.55. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-Resolution Guided-Wave Optical Sensors)
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21 pages, 1510 KiB  
Article
Ultrasensitive Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensor with a Feature of Dynamically Tunable Sensitivity and High Figure of Merit for Cancer Detection
by Ravi Gollapalli, Jonathan Phillips and Puneet Paul
Sensors 2023, 23(12), 5590; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23125590 - 14 Jun 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1789
Abstract
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and it is well known that an early detection of cancer in a human body will provide an opportunity to cure the cancer. Early detection of cancer depends on the sensitivity of the [...] Read more.
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and it is well known that an early detection of cancer in a human body will provide an opportunity to cure the cancer. Early detection of cancer depends on the sensitivity of the measuring device and method, where the lowest detectable concentration of the cancerous cell in a test sample becomes a matter of high importance. Recently, Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) has proven to be a promising method to detect cancerous cells. The SPR method is based on the detection of changes in refractive indices of samples under testing and the sensitivity of such a SPR based sensor is related to the smallest detectable change in the refractive index of the sample. There exist many techniques where different combinations of metals, metal alloys and different configurations have been shown to lead to high sensitivities of the SPR sensors. Based on the difference in the refractive index between a normal healthy cell and a cancerous cell, recently, SPR method has been shown to be applicable to detect different types of cancers. In this work, we propose a new sensor surface configuration that comprises of gold-silver-graphene-black phosphorus to detect different cancerous cells based on the SPR method. Additionally, recently we proposed that the application of electric field across gold-graphene layers that form the SPR sensor surface can provide enhanced sensitivity than that is possible without the application of electrical bias. We utilized the same concept and numerically studied the impact of electrical bias across the gold-graphene layers combined with silver and black Phosphorus layers which forms the SPR sensor surface. Our numerical results have shown that electrical bias across the sensor surface in this new heterostructure can provide enhanced sensitivity compared to the original unbiased sensor surface. Not only that, our results have shown that as the electrical bias increases, the sensitivity increases up to a certain value and stabilizes at a still improved sensitivity value. Such dependence of sensitivity on the applied bias provides a dynamic tunability of the sensitivity and figure-of-merit (FOM) of the sensor to detect different types of cancer. In this work, we used the proposed heterostructure to detect six different types of cancers: Basal, Hela, Jurkat, PC12, MDA-MB-231, and MCF-7. Comparing our results to work published recently, we were able to achieve an enhanced sensitivity ranging from 97.2 to 1851.4 (deg/RIU) and FOM values ranging from 62.13 to 89.81 far above the values presented recently by other researchers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-Resolution Guided-Wave Optical Sensors)
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7 pages, 2477 KiB  
Communication
Impact of Soil-Based Insulation on Ultrahigh-Resolution Fiber-Optic Interferometry
by Nabil Md Rakinul Hoque and Lingze Duan
Sensors 2023, 23(1), 259; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23010259 - 27 Dec 2022
Viewed by 1431
Abstract
High resolution optical interferometry often requires thermal and acoustic insultation to reduce and remove environment-induced fluctuations. Broader applications of interferometric optical sensors in the future call for low-cost materials with both low thermal diffusivity and good soundproofing capability. In this paper, we explore [...] Read more.
High resolution optical interferometry often requires thermal and acoustic insultation to reduce and remove environment-induced fluctuations. Broader applications of interferometric optical sensors in the future call for low-cost materials with both low thermal diffusivity and good soundproofing capability. In this paper, we explore the feasibility and effectiveness of natural soil as an insulation material for ultrahigh-resolution fiber-optic interferometry. An insulation chamber surrounded by soil is constructed, and its impact on the noise reduction of a Mach-Zehnder Fabry-Perot hybrid fiber interferometer is evaluated. Our results indicate that soil can effectively reduce ambient noise across a broad frequency range. Moreover, compared to conventional insulation materials such as polyurethane foam, soil shows superior insulation performance at low frequencies and thereby affords better long-term stability. This work demonstrates the practicability of soil as a legitimate option of insulation material for precision optical experiments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-Resolution Guided-Wave Optical Sensors)
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