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Received 26 February 2004; received in revised form 27 July 2004; accepted 28 July 2004
Available online 5 November 2004
Abstract
In this paper, design and characterization of a pH optical fiber sensor with pH sensitive dye is described. The sensor is prepared by fixing
the doped plastic fiber on a fused ortosilica block surface with blue bromophenol. The surface charge of silica and the refractive index, which
plays an important roll on the fiber, modifies the conditions of light propagation into the plastic optical fiber. We use the transmittance to
measure the pH of a solution or fluid in a range between 5.0 and 7.0. The advantage of this sensor is that, only 2 cm of doped fiber is enough
to measure the pH of a fluid in real time. The time response of the sensor reported in the present study is approximately 10 s.
© 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
PACS: 42.65Wi; 42.65Tg; 42.65H
0167-0987/$ – see front matter © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.snb.2004.07.020
E. Alvarado-Méndez et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 106 (2005) 518–522 519
blue bromophenol modify the initial spectrum of the optical curve, we use some known buffers (pH from 5 to 7). The
fiber. outgoing signal from the photodetector, related to the pH
value, is traced and showed in Fig. 3. A linear behavior was
observed, this is confirmed by the results obtained by Gupta
3. Experimental setup et al. [9].
As we mentioned, the intensity variation, due to the differ-
The experimental setup to characterize the pH sensor is ent buffers values, is converted in a voltage variation by the
shown in Fig. 2. Light from a LED (632.8 nm.) was injected photodetector. This signal, is acquired and processed using
into the doped fiber, while the other extreme was immersed LabView® . The system operation is showed in the diagram of
in a buffer fluid of known pH. To obtain the characteristic Fig. 4. The input signal is composed by two measurements:
Acknowledgements
Biographies currently studying his PhD at Laval University in Quebec, Canada, in the
optical materials group, at the department of Physics, Engineering Physics
Edgar Alvarado-Méndez received his PhD degree with honours in op- and Optics. His research interest includes the fabrication and characterisa-
tics from the National Institute for Astrophysics, Optics, and Electronics in tion of optical materials, waveguides, photorefractives, optoelectronics and
Puebla, México in 1997. He is currently research and teacher in the Fac- optical communications.
ulty of Engineering Mechanics, Electrical and Electronics (FIMEE) in the
University of Guanajuato, México. His main activities are in experimental Roger A. Lessard (PEng, PPhys, CQ) is a full professor (1982) and chair-
optical sensors based in fiber optics and theoretical nonlinear optics. man (2000) of the Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Optics of
the Faculty of Sciences and Engineering, Laval University, Quebec; Faculty
member of Physics since 1972. Founder director of the Center for Optics,
Roberto Rojas-laguna received his PhD degree in optics from the National
Photonics and Lasers (COPL) of the Faculty of Sciences and Engineer-
Institute for Astrophysics, Optics, and Electronics in Puebla, México in 1999.
ing, Laval University in 1989, director from 1989 to 1994. Cofounder and
He is currently research and teacher in the Faculty of Engineering Mechanics,
president of Laser InSpeck Inc. (1993–1996) (now InsSpeck); cofounder
Electrical and Electronics (FIMEE) in the University of Guanajuato, México.
of Holospectra (Lasiris) in 1985, research scientist at Gentec (1971–1972).
His main research activities are in nonlinear effects in fiber optics, Raman,
President of Roger A. Lessard D.Sc. Inc.; he is invited professor in the De-
and sensors with fiber optics.
partment of Precision Instrumentation of Tianjin University since 1982. Cur-
rent research interests are holography, holographic materials, holographic
José A. Andrade-Lucio received his PhD degree in optics from the National and optical storage photonic materials and instrumentation. He gave more
Institute for Astrophysics, Optics, and Electronics in Puebla, México in 1999. that 100 conferences, more than 110 communications with proceedings, 190
He is currently research and teacher in the Faculty of Engineering Mechanics, communications in international and national conferences and is author of
Electrical and Electronics (FIMEE) in the University of Guanajuato, México. 122 publications and chapter of books. He supervised 18 PhD thesis, 25 MSc
His main activities are in experimental nonlinear optics, optical sensors and thesis and he is currently supervising 15 graduate students at PhD (9) and
optical signal processing. MSc (6).
Daniel Hernández-Cruz was born in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, México, J. Gabriel Aviña-Cervantes He is currently a PhD student in signal and
and received the BS degree in electronics engineering from the Technical image processing at the National Polytechnics Institute of Toulouse, France.
Institute at Tuxtla Gutiérrez (ITTG), in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, México His main research interest involves optoelectronics instrumentation, pattern
in 1997. He earned his MSc degree in optics from the National Institute for recognition, methods for the description and interpretation of outdoor natural
Astrophysics, Optics, and Electronics, in Puebla, México in 1999. He is scenes and autonomous vision-based mobile robotics.