Photonic crystal fibre: a novel optofluidic platform for sensing and photochemistry Anita Jones, Lara A. Casha, Sergio Adan Bermudez University of Edinburgh, UK In 1996 a major breakthrough in optical fibre technology came with the advent of photonic crystal fibre, a novel structure in which light is trapped in the hollow air-core of the fibre by the surrounding 2-dimensional periodic ‘photonic crystal’ cladding, consisting of microscopic hollow capillaries running along the entire length of the glass fibre. The possibility of low-loss guidance of light in a hollow core has led to a multitude of important technological and scientific applications. From a Chemist’s perspective, a particularly important feature of hollow-core photonic crystal fibre (HC-PCF) is that a sample solution can be introduced into the hollow core, which is typically 10’s of mm in diameter, while maintaining the high optical transmission efficiency of the fibre. The confinement of both excitation light and sample solution within the core of the fibre results in intense light-matter interactions over very long path-lengths, making HC-PCF very advantageous for applications in chemical sensing and photochemistry. 1,2 The unique optofluidic properties of HC-PCF offer a radically new approach to the study of two-photon-induced processes, since, within the core, two-photon excitation can be sustained over a path-length >;10 cm. 3 We will present examples of the use of HC-PCF as an optofluidic platform, including our recent work on ultrasensitive detection of two-photon photosensitized singlet oxygen. References 1. Photonic crystal fibres for chemical sensing and photochemistry, A. M. Cubillas, S. Unterkofler, T. G. Euser, Bastian J. M. Etzold, A. C. Jones, P. J. Sadler, P. Wasserscheid and P. St.J. Russell, Chem. Soc. Rev. 2013, 42, 8629 – 8648 2. Highly sensitive luminescence detection of photosensitized singlet oxygen within photonic crystal fibre, G. O. S. Williams, T. G. Euser, P. StJ. Russell, A. J. MacRobert and A. C. Jones, ChemPhotoChem 2018, 2, 616 – 621. 3. Taking two-photon excitation to exceptional path-lengths in photonic crystal fiber, G. O. S. Williams, T. G. Euser, J. Arlt, P. St.J. Russell and A. C. Jones, ACS Photonics 2014, 1, 790-793.
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