Effect of induced inner curvature on refractive index sensitivity in internally tilted long-period gratings.

A new complete analysis of the effect of induced inner curvature on refractive index (RI) sensitivity in internally tilted long-period gratings (ITLPGs) is presented. The responses in terms of RI sensitivity of a standard LPG and different ITLPGs with curvature values between 15 and 19 m-1 were compared. The analysis suggests first, that the larger the induced curvature, the greater the RI sensitivity; and second, that the RI sensitivity exponentially increases with both the curvature and cladding mode order. RI sensitivity greater than 100 nm RIU-1 can be attained with curvature greater than 25 m-1 for LP06 mode. Conversely, the temperature sensitivity of ITLPGs is comparable to standard LPGs for the considered cladding mode order.

SPR-based plastic optical fibre biosensor for the detection of C-reactive protein in serum.

A plastic optical fibre biosensor based on surface plasmon resonance for the detection of C-reactive protein (CRP) in serum is proposed. The biosensor was integrated into a home-made thermo-stabilized microfluidic system that allows avoiding any thermal and/or mechanical fluctuation and maintaining the best stable conditions during the measurements. A working range of 0.006-70 mg L-1 and a limit of detection of 0.009 mg L-1 were achieved. These results are among the best compared to other SPR-based biosensors for CRP detection, especially considering that they were achieved in a real and complex medium, i.e. serum. In addition, since the sensor performances satisfy those requested in physiologically-relevant clinical applications, the whole biosensing platform could well address high sensitive, easy to realize, real-time, label-free, portable and low cost diagnosis of CRP for future lab-on-a-chip applications. 3D sketch (left) of the thermo-stabilized home-made flow cell developed to house the SPR-based plastic optical fibre biosensor. Exemplary response curve (shift of the SPR wavelength versus time) of the proposed biosensor (right) for the detection of C-reactive protein in serum.

Theoretical and experimental investigation of generating pulsed Bessel-Gauss beams by using an axicon-based resonator.

Nondiffracting Bessel-Gauss beams are assumed as the superposition of infinite numbers of Gaussian beams whose wave vectors lie on a cone. Based on such a description, different methods are suggested to generate these fields. In this paper, we followed an active scheme to generate these beams. By introducing an axicon-based resonator, we designed the appropriate resonator, studied its resonance modes, and analyzed the beam propagation outside the resonator. Experimentally, we succeeded to obtain Bessel-Gauss beams of the first kind and zero order. We also investigated the changes in effective parameters on the output beam, both theoretically and experimentally.

Generation of pulsed Bessel-Gauss beams using passive axicon-theoretical and experimental studies.

We studied the conditions for generating passive Bessel-Gauss beams by using an axicon. We designed an appropriate Gaussian resonator and extracted a quasi-fundamental Gaussian mode from a pulsed Nd:YAG laser pumped by a Xenon flash lamp and measured its parameters, such as propagation factor, divergence angle, and Rayleigh range. Then we generated passive Bessel-Gauss beams using an axicon and investigated their propagation properties, theoretically and experimentally. For example, for the axicon of 1°, the output energy and the Rayleigh range of the generated Bessel-Gauss beams were measured to be 58 mJ and 229.3 mm, respectively. We compared these properties with our results of the Gaussian mode. Finally, by using axicons with different apex angles, and also by changing the beam spot size on the axicon, we generated Bessel-Gauss beams and studied their properties theoretically and experimentally.