We demonstrate the use of thermally insensitive fiber optic multimode interference (MMI) devices to measure the thermo-optic coefficient (TOC) of liquids. Such athermal MMI devices are all-fiber, easy to fabricate and, in general, consist of a cascade of several multimode sections. Removing the inherent thermo-optical response of the MMI device is achieved passively in a material-based fashion. Starting from the general theory, we derive simple analytical expressions for the design of two-element MMI cascaded devices with arbitrary materials. Moreover, we verify that those expressions are valid irrespectively of the self-imaging operation. We designed and fabricated an athermal MMI device with a simple architecture consisting of a so-called no-core optical fiber (NCF), which is partly coated by PDMS, and we used it to measure the TOC of several standard liquids. Our results are in good agreement with the values of the TOC reported in the literature. By removing the thermal cross-sensitivity in our device, only one calibration measurement is necessary, which allows for straightforward information retrieval.

The scientific community has been interested in lophine’s versatility and usage in various applications. Research has shown that humic acid is a material that exhibits interference with lophine. Humic molecules associate with each other in supramolecular conformations through weak hydrophobic interactions at alkaline or neutral pH and hydrogen bonds at low pH. This work presents the characterization of a sensitive lophine layer based on water’s hydrogen ions (pH). We conducted a spectroscopy study to analyze how the absorbance at different amounts of lophine depends on pH. This study demonstrates the hyperchromic behavior of imidazole at various pH values, which may be utilized in an intrinsic fiber optic pH sensor. The dynamic range of the fiber optic sensor was 5 to 11.3 pH units. The sensor was developed by coating a thinned fiber with a sensitive lophine layer. It achieves a sensitivity of 0.27 dB/pH and a response time of 5 s.

In this work, a new imidazole derivative is characterized in a 30° to 65 °C temperature range. It shows thermochromic properties in its absorption spectrum to be used in manufacturing fiber optic sensors.

In this work, PEDOT:PSS/PVA was studied as an optical fiber coating for pH detection in the range of 1-7, showing a response in that range and high stability for approximately 10 minutes.