UNIT 4 (OPTICAL FIBRE AND LASER)

Use of Laser & Optical Fiber in Sensors & Detectors

In the past few decades, laser and optical-based technology have been extensively used in
various areas of research at an academic and industries level. Especially, the laser and optical
fibrebased sensors become an integral part of security purposes, cancerous cell detection using
laser, volatile/hazardous chemical detection at mines and industries etc. The nitrogen and alcohol
based chemical like ammonia, ethanol and largely used in manufacturing various herbicides,
pesticides, fertilizers, and explosives etc. The development of multipurpose portable sensors has
now become an area of interest to combat both environmental pollution and terrorism. The use of
explosives as landmines posed a security threat for human lives, while the hoarding of large
amounts of nitrogen-based compounds like ammonium nitrate and urea nitrate, pollutes the soil,
air and water. In recent times, even the excessive use of petrol and diesel-based motorvehicles
and chemical factories produce a large number of greenhouse gases (CO, CO2, NO and NO2 and
SO2). The emission of such greenhouse gases leads to increase in global temperature and
imbalance in environment and weather conditions. Thus the timely detection of vapour phase
explosive and toxic pollutant gases emitted from both industries and vehicles help save both
human lives and the environment. The recent advancement in optical and laser based sensors
proved as an efficient methods for quantitative and qualitative analysis of hazardous chemical
with great accuracy. Here we will discusses the most common method optical fiber and laser
based sensors for hazardous chemicals.
1. Optical fiber sensors

Working Principle: It is based on the idea that a change in the transmitting output power
(power)as the refractive index of modified clad material in effect of change in surrounding
environment.
As we all know, light propagates in optical fiber due to the total internal reflection phenomena.
Once the light reached the tampered/clad modified region of fiber near-zero propagation loss
within the cladding. The clad modified region of optical fiber is essential to exploit fibre-optic
structures to disturb the light propagation, thereby enabling the interaction of the light with
surroundings and constructing fibre-optic sensors. Until now, there are several methods, for
tampering with light propagation such as polishing, chemical etching, tapering and bendingthat
have been proposed to tailor the light propagation and prompt the interaction of light with
sensing materials. In the fibre-optic structures, the enhanced evanescent fields can be efficiently
excited to induce the light to expose to and interact with the surrounding medium.
1.1 Construction of optical fibre-based sensors
Fabrication process of the optical fiber sensing probe was divided into four steps. The first step was the
fiber etching process for removing the clad of the optical fiber. By using either buffer oxide etchant
(BOE) or sharp surgical blade, the protective layer (Buffer) and cladding were stripped middle of the
single-mode fiber for 3-5 cm. The terminal ends of optical fiber were polished by using emery papers.
When an optical fiber is etched, its diameter will gradually decrease. This makes the optical fiber
extremely sensitive to the external physical phenomena for the detection of explosive and air pollutant
gases. In the second step, the middle portion of the optical fiber bend to form a larger bending radius, and
then a blowtorch was used to heat the bend portion of the optical fiber for making the desirable radius.
After cooling, the U-shaped bend optical fiber could be obtained. In the third step, new clad (sensing)
materials coating will be done on the bend optical fiber. The decladded region is coated with sensing
materials by using the dip-coating method with a dipping time of about 60–120 s. The desirable coating
thickness for the sensing probe region is about 150-200μm. In the fourth step, modified clad coated
optical fiber is placed in a closed glass vessel attached with a continuous flow of explosive and toxic
pollutant gases for sensing.
1.2 Mechanism of sensing

The experimental setup for the U-bend optical fiber sensor consists of a white light source closed into the
glass setup. In this experiment, the U-bend optical fiber probe with a novel sensing layer will be exposed
to the explosives, volatile organic chemicals, and air pollutant gases (CO, CO2, NO and NO2 and SO2).
The modified cladding region interacts with the target gaseous species, which results in the change in
intensity of the guided signal along with the core of the optical fiber, therefore producing the change in
output intensity. The gradual increase or decrease in the output intensity is due to the capture or liberation
of the free electron by the sensing materials, as the sensing materials interact with the surrounding
chemical. Hence, the increase or decrease in carrier concentration in the conduction band of the sensing
region results in the change of refractive index. The clad-medium with a refractive index smaller than the
core region results in the total internal reflection. The cladding medium absorbs a small amount of light
depending on the absorption coefficient of the material (evanescent wave) and gas interaction. The rest of
the light undergoes total internal reflection. This leaked light which absorbed into the cladding re-enters
into the core after suffering a significant change in the amount of lightat the air–cladding interface due to
target gas interaction. The intensity of the output spectrum gradually changes as the concentration of
various analytes species increases. The corresponding study of the output signal will be used to study the
sensitivity and selectivity of vapour phase explosive and pollutant gases.

Fig. 2. Optical fiber sensor probe coated with sensing materials.

Fig. 3. The experimental schematic diagram for optical fiber sensor.

1.3 Advantageous of optical fiber sensors:
➢ Resistance to electromagnetic interference
➢ Durability under extreme temperatures and pressures
➢ High transmission rate
➢ Lightweight, small size, and flexibilit

2. Laser-Based Sensors
Trace level detection of explosives, volatile and hazardous chemicals/analytes is essential for the
military, aviation security sector. The early detection of explosives and their associated mixtures
that can avoid any potential blast is important as they can induce lots of damage to public and
private properties. There are various kinds of laser based sensors techniques, but here we will
discuss one of them that is “Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)”.
2.1 Construction of LIBS The main components of LIBS setup is the pulsed laser (usually
pulsed laser), optical components for focussing and collection the emitted light photon,
spectrometer and computer for examine the output signal.
2.2 The mechanism for trace-level chemical detection

Working Principle: The basic phenomenon involved in the working principle is light-matter
interaction.
The main physical process that forms the essence of LIBS technology is the formation of high-
temperature plasma, induced by a short laser pulse. When the short-pulse laser beam is focused
onto the sample surface, a small volume of the sample mass is ablated (i.e. removed via both
thermal and non-thermal mechanisms) in a process known as Laser Ablation. This ablated mass
further interacts with a trailing portion of the laser pulse to form a highly energetic plasma that
contains free electronics, excited atoms and ions. Many fundamental research projects have
shown that the plasma temperature can exceed 30,000K in its early lifetime phase. When the
laser pulse terminates, the plasma starts to cool. During the plasma cooling process, the electrons
of the atoms and ions at the excited electronic states fall into natural ground states, causing the
plasma to emit light with discrete spectral peaks. The emitted light from the plasma is collected
and coupled with aspectrograph detector module for LIBS spectral analysis. Each element in the
periodic table is associated with unique LIBS spectral peaks. By identifying different peaks for
the analysed samples, their chemical composition can be rapidly determined. Often, information
on LIBS peak intensities can be used to quantify the concentration of trace and major elements in
the sample.
 Fig. Schematic diagram of LIBS technique for chemical detection.

Fig. Schematic diagram of LIBS technique for chemical detection.

2.3 Advantage of LIBS method

It is a rapid chemical analysis technology that uses a short laser pulse to create a micro-plasma
on the sample surface. This analytical technique offers many compelling advantages compared to
other elemental analysis techniques. These include:
➢ Extremely fast measurement time, usually a few seconds, for a single spot analysis
➢ Broad elemental coverage, including lighter elements, such as H, Be, Li, C, N, O, Na, and
Mg
➢ Versatile sampling protocols that include fast raster of the sample surface and depth profiling
➢ Thin-sample analysis without the worry of the substrate interference
➢ A typical detection limit of LIBS (1 to 100 ppm) for heavy metallic elements is in the low-
PPM range

Applications and Lifelong learning

1. Endoscopy
It is a medical examination procedure to look inside the human body. The endoscopy procedure
uses an endoscope to examine the interior of a hollow organ or cavity of the body. Unlike many
other medical imaging techniques, endoscopes are inserted directly into the organ. It is used to
investigate symptoms in the digestive system including nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain,
difficulty swallowing, and gastrointestinal bleeding. It is also used in diagnosis, most commonly
by performing a biopsy to check for conditions such as bleeding, inflammation, and cancers of
the digestive system. The procedure may also be used for treatment such as cauterization of a
bleeding vessel, widening a narrow oesophagus, clipping off a polyp or removing a foreign
object.
Figure 1. (a) Pictorial diagram of endoscopy and (b) damages in the gastrointestinal tract.
Reference Link for Optical Fiber in Endoscopy
1. [Link] (Basic of Endoscopy and applications)
2. [Link] (Basic Component and endoscope)

2. Laser surgery-Eye

Laser surgery is a type of surgery that uses a laser (in contrast to using a scalpel) to cut
[Link] include the use of a laser scalpel in otherwise conventional surgery, and soft-
tissue laser surgery, in which the laser beam vaporizes soft tissue with high water content.
Laser surgery is commonly used on the eye. Techniques used include LASIK, which is used to
correct near and far-sightedness in vision, and photorefractive keratectomy, a procedure that
permanently reshapes the cornea using an excimer laser to remove a small amount of the human
tissue.

Figure 2. Laser surgery in (a) mole removal and (b) eye surgery for cornea correction and focal
length correction (myopia and hypermetropia).
Reference Link for Laser Surgery
[Link] (Introduction:
Laser Surgery)
[Link] (Applications of Laser in Different Areas of
Surgery)

Light transmission through total internal reflection TIR

Instructions
Make a small round (~5mm) hole in the side of the bottle near the base. It is probably best to use
a drill to do this as the bottle will be very slippery. Put your finger over the hole and fill the
bottle up with water. Shine the torch through the bottle at the back of the hole. Remove your
finger from the hole and move it down the stream of water.
Result
You should notice a spot of light on your hand while it is in the stream of water, even though it
must have gone around a corner to get there. It tends to work best when the water comes out
quite slowly.
The Water Fibre Optics Experiment

Figure 1. A real-life example of light propagation through total internal reflection.

Reference
[Link] (Importance of
Total Internal reflection for Light Transmission)
[Link] (Examples of optical fiber)
Laser Machining in industries
Laser cutting machine is a technology that uses lasers such as solid state lasers, CO2 and fiber to
cut materials. It is capable to cut materials ranging from steel to plastic with absolute precision. It
is an essential machinery tool required by industries to manufacture the components with
composite geometry for instance automotive industry, machine tool industry and other
manufacturing industries.
Figure 1. A real-life example of laser for metal and cutting and machining for industrial
application.