Porous Polyethylene Terephthalate Optical Waveguide for Sensing Applications

Author

Wing Fat Ho ; Hau Ping Chan ; Tsvetkov, Valentin

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron. Eng., City Univ. of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

Volume

25

Issue

17

fYear

2013

fDate

Sept.1, 2013

Firstpage

1672

Lastpage

1675

Abstract

We report the fabrication and characterization of optical waveguides using porous polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film. An optical waveguide is produced by exposing the PET film to cyclotron followed by selective chemical etching. Considering that the average refractive index of porous regions is lower than that of non-porous regions, a waveguide can be formed using a single optical material system. A single-material channel waveguide and an optical splitter were demonstrated using our proposed technique. Through placing a liquid crystal inside the pores, an ethanol gas sensor was obtained with a single-material channel waveguide structure. These PET film waveguides can create new opportunities in various optical applications, particularly in chemical sensing applications.

Keywords

etching; gas sensors; liquid crystal devices; optical beam splitters; optical fabrication; optical films; optical polymers; optical sensors; optical waveguides; organic compounds; polymer films; porous materials; refractive index; thin film sensors; PET film; average refractive index; chemical sensing applications; cyclotron; ethanol gas sensor; liquid crystal; optical applications; optical fabrication; optical splitter; porous polyethylene terephthalate optical waveguide; selective chemical etching; single optical material system; single-material channel waveguide structure; Optical device fabrication; Optical films; Optical refraction; Optical variables control; Optical waveguides; Positron emission tomography; Optical waveguides; liquid crystal; optical film; polyethylene terephthalate; porous materials; sensors;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2013.2273090

Filename

6557431