Ultra-sensitive Compact Fiber
Raman Sensor Based on Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering
Abstract:
The demand
for sensors for detecting chemical and
biological agents is greater than ever
before, including medical, environmental,
food safety, military, and security
applications. At present, most detection or
sensing techniques tend to be either
non-molecular specific, bulky, expensive,
relatively inaccurate, or unable to provide
real time data. Clearly, alternative sensing
technologies are urgently needed. Recently,
we have been working on a novel sensor based
on nanoparticle surface enhanced Raman
scattering (SERS) and D-shaped fibers for
chemical, biological, and environmental
detection. The sensor will be highly
sensitive, molecular specific, reliable,
label-free, non-invasive, inexpensive, easy
to produce commercially using existing
technologies, compatible with existing
lasers and detectors, and
applicable to a large number of molecules of
interest. This is made possible by the
unique sensor architecture based on a
combination of D-shaped fibers and novel
SERS substrates, where SERS provides the
high sensitivity (106-1015 enhancement
factor), molecular specificity, and
applicability to a wide range of compounds,
while the novel D-shaped fiber provides the
flexibility, compactness, reliability, low
cost, and ease of production.
Speaker Bio:
Claire Gu received her Ph.D. in
Physics from Caltech in 1989. Then she worked as a member of the
technical staff at Rockwell Science Center, and went to Penn State
in 1992 as an assistant professor. In 1997, she came to UC Santa
Cruz as the first Electrical Engineering faculty member, and is now
a professor in EE. Her research interests include fiber optics,
holographic data storage, liquid crystal displays, nonlinear optics,
and optical information processing; with a current emphasis on fiber
sensors using SERS (surface enhanced Raman scattering). She has
published more than 160 journal and conference papers in these
areas. In addition, she has co-authored a text/reference book on
"Optics of Liquid Crystal Displays", and co-edited two technical
books on photorefractive nonlinear optics and applications.
She received a National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award
in 1993. Since 2000, she has been a Topical Editor of Optics
Letters.
