Evanescent field sensors and the implementation of waveguiding nanostructures

Conventional fiber optic evanescent-field gas sensors are based on a high number of total reflections while the gas is passing the active bare core fiber and of course a suitable laser light source. The use of miniaturized laser sources for sensitive detection of CO(2) in gaseous and water-dissolved phase for environmental monitoring are studied for signal enhancing purposes. Additionally, the fiber optic sensor, consisting of a coiled bare multimode fiber core, was sensitized by an active polymer coating for the detection of explosive TNT. The implementation of ZnO waveguiding nanowires is discussed for surface and sensitivity enhancing coating of waveguiding elements, considering computational and experimental results.