Optical sensing occurs when a change of an external magnitude modifies the optical properties of the sensing area along the guiding element and modulates the light characteristics (intensity, phase, polarization...).
Great effort are done in the developing of sensing devices for monitoring different physical and chemical parameters. Being the first ones who have reached the industrialization phase.
However, opto(bio)chemical sensors may have the higher growth, due to their application in different fields as: industrial process automatization, environmental control and clinical monitoring.
As examples of integrated optical sensor, two kind of opto-chemical sensors have been developed t:
Moreover, combining optical components and mechanical actuators an Optical Waveguide Cantilever able to measure biochemical interactions have been designed and fabricated.
Examples of Absorption, Mach-Zehnder Interferometer and Optical actuated Cantilever as transducers for Opto(bio)chemical sensors.
Light coupling to an array
of Optical Waveguide Cantilevers