Refractive Index Fibre and Integrated Optic Sensors

Dear Colleagues,

The development of a variety of optical waveguide microstructures that are highly sensitive to surrounding refractive index changes has opened the way for the development of a variety of refractometric sensors for a plethora of applications in biochemical sensing, vapor, humidity, and moisture ingress sensing.

Among the refractive index sensing structures of interest are fiber gratings, more specifically, regular long period gratings (LPGs) and double resonance LPGs (DR-LPGs) around turning point, tilted fiber Bragg gratings (TFBGs), evanescent wave and tapered fiber structures, fiberized plasmonic sensors, fiber microcavity Mach–Zehnder interferometers, integrated optic gratings and interferometers, photonic crystal fibers (PCF), and other specialty microstructures.

The drive to develop practical, lower cost, and higher sensitivity devices poses a number of problems and challenges to be overcome. The reliability and repeatability of a sensor's parameters and performance, temperature compensation or insensitivity, and issues of packaging and manufacturability are all of key importance for a practical product. Also of interest are the performance of interrogation techniques, multiplexing techniques that would allow simultaneous or quasi-simultaneous measurement of a number of parameters, and the construction of sensing networks that will lead to a reduction in the price per sensor.

The objective of this Special Issue is to cover the following topics:

• Novel types and developments of sensing structures allowing refractive index measurements in micro-, nano-, and picoliter volumes;
• Fabrication technologies for waveguide- and microoptic-based refractometers;
• Multiplexing and interrogation techniques for sensing devices and networks;
• Multiparameter and multianalyte measurement techniques with applications in biochemical, gas, vapor, and humidity sensing;
• Optical waveguide-compatible microfluidic refractometers.

Dr. Tinko Eftimov
Guest Editor

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