3D Printing Optofluidic Mach-Zehnder Interferometer on a Fiber Tip for Refractive Index Sensing

Dengwei Zhang; Heming Wei; Sridhar Krishnaswamy

doi:10.1109/LPT.2019.2943897

3D Printing Optofluidic Mach-Zehnder Interferometer on a Fiber Tip for Refractive Index Sensing

Dengwei Zhang, Heming Wei^*, Sridhar Krishnaswamy

^*Corresponding author for this work

Mechanical Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

An optofluidic polymer Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) fabricated via direct laser writing (DLW) on a fiber tip is proposed and experimentally demonstrated as a refractometer where one of the interference arms is made of the polymer waveguide while the other arm is a hollow cavity with a 1-\mu \text{m} wall thickness and containing two open channels. The analytes can be filled through the channels, forming an optofluidic component of the interferometer. In this letter, two MZI microstructures with different hollow lengths are described and characterized. The experimental results of the two MZIs in air and water show that the MZI with a longer hollow cavity has higher sensitivity. Analytes such as de-ionized (DI) water and glucose solutions with different concentrations have been measured in the MZI with the long hollow cavity. The results show that this kind of sensing device provides a promising platform for refractive index measurements with a sensitivity of 593.75 nm/RIU based on the FSR calculation method.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	8850017
Pages (from-to)	1725-1728
Number of pages	4
Journal	IEEE Photonics Technology Letters
Volume	31
Issue number	21
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/LPT.2019.2943897
State	Published - Nov 1 2019

Funding

Manuscript received September 7, 2019; accepted September 23, 2019. Date of publication September 26, 2019; date of current version November 12, 2019. This work was supported in part by China Scholarship Council (CSC) under Grant 201806325026, in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61203190 and Grant 61601405, and in part by the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province under Grant LY17F030010. (Corresponding author: Heming Wei.) D. Zhang is with the State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China (e-mail: seaskyzdw@ zju.edu.cn).

Keywords

Mach-Zehnder interferometer
Optofluidic
direct laser writing
refractive index sensor

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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10.1109/LPT.2019.2943897

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title = "3D Printing Optofluidic Mach-Zehnder Interferometer on a Fiber Tip for Refractive Index Sensing",

abstract = "An optofluidic polymer Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) fabricated via direct laser writing (DLW) on a fiber tip is proposed and experimentally demonstrated as a refractometer where one of the interference arms is made of the polymer waveguide while the other arm is a hollow cavity with a 1-\mu \text{m} wall thickness and containing two open channels. The analytes can be filled through the channels, forming an optofluidic component of the interferometer. In this letter, two MZI microstructures with different hollow lengths are described and characterized. The experimental results of the two MZIs in air and water show that the MZI with a longer hollow cavity has higher sensitivity. Analytes such as de-ionized (DI) water and glucose solutions with different concentrations have been measured in the MZI with the long hollow cavity. The results show that this kind of sensing device provides a promising platform for refractive index measurements with a sensitivity of 593.75 nm/RIU based on the FSR calculation method.",

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author = "Dengwei Zhang and Heming Wei and Sridhar Krishnaswamy",

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N2 - An optofluidic polymer Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) fabricated via direct laser writing (DLW) on a fiber tip is proposed and experimentally demonstrated as a refractometer where one of the interference arms is made of the polymer waveguide while the other arm is a hollow cavity with a 1-\mu \text{m} wall thickness and containing two open channels. The analytes can be filled through the channels, forming an optofluidic component of the interferometer. In this letter, two MZI microstructures with different hollow lengths are described and characterized. The experimental results of the two MZIs in air and water show that the MZI with a longer hollow cavity has higher sensitivity. Analytes such as de-ionized (DI) water and glucose solutions with different concentrations have been measured in the MZI with the long hollow cavity. The results show that this kind of sensing device provides a promising platform for refractive index measurements with a sensitivity of 593.75 nm/RIU based on the FSR calculation method.

AB - An optofluidic polymer Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) fabricated via direct laser writing (DLW) on a fiber tip is proposed and experimentally demonstrated as a refractometer where one of the interference arms is made of the polymer waveguide while the other arm is a hollow cavity with a 1-\mu \text{m} wall thickness and containing two open channels. The analytes can be filled through the channels, forming an optofluidic component of the interferometer. In this letter, two MZI microstructures with different hollow lengths are described and characterized. The experimental results of the two MZIs in air and water show that the MZI with a longer hollow cavity has higher sensitivity. Analytes such as de-ionized (DI) water and glucose solutions with different concentrations have been measured in the MZI with the long hollow cavity. The results show that this kind of sensing device provides a promising platform for refractive index measurements with a sensitivity of 593.75 nm/RIU based on the FSR calculation method.

KW - Mach-Zehnder interferometer

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KW - direct laser writing

KW - refractive index sensor

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3D Printing Optofluidic Mach-Zehnder Interferometer on a Fiber Tip for Refractive Index Sensing

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