title: Characterization of a liquid-filled nodeless anti-resonant fiber for biochemical sensing.
abstract: We theoretically and experimentally characterize a liquid-filled nodeless anti-resonant fiber (LARF) that could find versatile applications in biochemical sensing. When a hollow-core nodeless anti-resonant fiber (HARF) is filled with a low refractive index liquid such as water or aqueous solutions in the whole hollow area, it preserves its anti-resonant reflection waveguiding mechanism with attributes encompassing the broad transmission bandwidth in UV, visible, and near IR; the neglectable confinement loss; and the acceptable single-mode quality. In comparison with other forms of hollow fiber, the moderate core size of our ARF allows both a large analyte-light overlap integral and a fast liquid flow rate. Such a LARF platform offers a promising route for creating compact, integrable and biocompatible all-fiber multifunctional optofluidic devices for in-situ applications. A proof-of-concept experiment of Raman spectroscopy using ethanol is presented, and applications in fluorescence spectroscopy, resonant Raman spectroscopy, noninvasive biochemical analysis, and interferometric sensing are in prospect.
authors.forename: Xiao-Lu
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Ying-Ying
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Shou-Fei
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Xian
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Pu
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D001671:Biochemistry; D055100:Optical Fibers; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman