Versatile Optofluidic Solid-Core/Liquid-Cladding Waveguide Based on Evanescent Wave Excitation

In this paper, we present the design and operation of a solid-core/liquid-cladding (SL) waveguide excited by an evanescent wave. To do this, an optical fiber is integrated into a microfluidic channel and pumped along the fiber axis, ensuring the cladding solution is excited by the evanescent field of the guided mode at the core/cladding interface. The pump beam is guided by the total internal reflection in the fiber, providing a uniform excitation along the microfluidic channel. The evanescent wave provides precise excitation to the dye molecules in close proximity to the core/cladding interface, which significantly reduces the background fluorescence and increases the signal-to-noise ratio. Fluorescence intensity measurements of different dye concentrations and refractive indices of the cladding solution are conducted to evaluate their influences on the propagation loss, which shows that the peak intensity propagation loss can be as low as about 0.1 dB/cm. We further exemplify that the intensity of the fluorescence emission and the dye concentration show good linearity when the dye is in the low concentration region (<250 μM). A broad-band and simultaneous light source with a single pump light is also demonstrated by employing cascade SL waveguide segments through fluorescence resonance energy transfer. The proposed SL waveguide demonstrates excellent robustness and is easy to fabricate and use, providing a versatile platform for a variety of applications, such as high-sensitivity detection of low-concentration samples, multiband on-chip light sources, and simultaneous measurement of multiplexed parameters.