Nanofiber enhanced stimulated Raman spectroscopy for ultra-fast, ultra-sensitive hydrogen detection with ultra-wide dynamic range

• DOI: 10.1364/optica.6.000570
• Publication Date: 2019-04-26T15:05:15Z
• Authors: Yun Qi; Yan Zhao; Haihong Bao; Wei Jin; Hoi Lut Ho
• Keywords: Hydrogen sensor

The increasing importance of hydrogen as an energy carrier and industrial material calls for sensors with higher sensitivity, better selectivity, faster response, wider dynamic range.Here, we report a nanofiber (NF) sensor that satisfies these requirements single sensing element.The is based on stimulated Raman scattering spectroscopy, but the tightly confined evanescent field associated NF enhances gain per unit length by factor 30 to 10 2 over state-of-the-art hollow-core photonic crystal fibers more than 4 free-space beams.The has excellent mode quality, which ensures mode-noise-free measurement maximizes signal-to-noise ratio.An experiment 700-nm-diameter, 48-mm-long silica operating in telecom wavelength band demonstrates detection from few parts million 100% response time less s.The would be useful range applications, including leakage well monitoring battery charging, fuel cells, electric power transformer health conditions.