Continuous spatial field confocal thermometry using lanthanide doped tellurite glass

Distinguishing between microscopic variances in temperature in both space and time with high precision can open up new opportunities in optical sensing. In this paper, we present a novel approach to optically measure temperature from the fluorescence of erbium:ytterbium doped tellurite glass, with fast temporal resolution at micron-scale localisation over an area with sub millimetre spatial dimensions. This confocal-based approach provides a micron-scale image of temperature variations over a 200 $$ m $$ 200 $$ m field of view at sub-1 second time intervals. We test our sensing platform by monitoring the real-time evaporation of a water droplet over a wide field of view and track it's evaporative cooling effect on the glass where we report a net temperature change of 6.97 K ± 0.03 K. This result showcases a confocal approach to thermometry to provide high temporal and spatial resolution over a microscopic field of view with the goal of providing real-time measures of temperature on the micro-scale.