Large-area hyphenated fiber-optic chemical sensor platforms

The ability to collect broadband spectroscopic information about chemical analytes is highly desirable. We report on a technique that combines chemically selective coatings and optical spectroscopy. A I-meter fiber 150 mu m in diameter has approximately 5 cm(2) surface area. This entire surface is used by incorporating selective moieties into the fiber cladding. The Large-Area Chemical Sensor (LACS) concept for chemical sensing and measurement is based on a combination of three techniques. Specifically, it uses: 1) optical waveguides as the sensor substrate, 2) selectively adsorbing or absorbing materials to concentrate the target materials, and 3) spectroscopic interrogation for verification and quantification. The concept has been demonstrated for an iodine sensor by co-polymerizing methyl, phenyl siloxane into di-methyl siloxane. The phenyl group forms a charge-transfer complex with iodine which has an absorption at ca. 500 nm. Fused silica is the waveguide core. This system provides sensitivities in the 10-ppm range. The concept has been implemented into a prototype field iodine sensor unit. Work on the sensor concept continues with the goal of improving the sensitivity by allowing each photon multiple opportunities to interact with a target molecule.