Journal article
Polymer Optical Fiber Tip Mass Production Etch Mechanism to Achieve CPC Shape for Improved Biosensor Performance
Biophotonic Imaging, Nano and Bio-physical Systems, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark1
Biomedical Engineering, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark2
Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark3
Fiber Sensors & Supercontinuum, Department of Photonics Engineering, Technical University of Denmark4
Department of Photonics Engineering, Technical University of Denmark5
We report on a simple chemical etching method that enables nonlinear tapering of Polymer Optical Fiber (POF) tips to manufacture Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) fiber tips. We show that, counter-intuitively, nonlinear tapering can be achieved by first etching the core and not the cladding. The etching mechanism is modelled and etched tips are characterized both geometrically and optically in a fluorescence glucose sensor chemistry.
A Zemax model of the CPC tipped sensor predicts an optimal improvement in light capturing efficiency of a factor of 3.96 compared to the conventional sensor with a plane-cut fiber tip. A batch of eight CPC fiber tips has been manufactured by the chemical etching method. The batch average showed an increase of a factor of 3.16, which is only 20% less than the predicted value.
The method is reproducible and can be up-scaled for mass production.
| Language: | English |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | MDPI |
| Year: | 2019 |
| Pages: | 285 |
| ISSN: | 14243210 and 14248220 |
| Types: | Journal article |
| DOI: | 10.3390/s19020285 |
| ORCIDs: | Bang, Ole and Janting, Jakob |
