Photothermal effect in gas-filled hollow-core photonic bandgap fiber

We exploit photothermal effect in gas-filled hollow-core photonic bandgap fibers, and demonstrate remarkably sensitive all-fiber (acetylene) gas sensors with noise equivalent concentration of 1-3 parts-per-billion and an unprecedented dynamic range of nearly six orders of magnitude. These results are two to three orders of magnitude better than previous direct absorption-based optical fiber gas sensors. The realization of photothermal spectroscopy in fiber-optic format will allow a new class of sensors with ultra-sensitivity and selectivity, compact size, remote and multiplexed multi-point detection capability.Department of Electrical EngineeringRefereed conference pape