Towards Highly Efficient Polymer Fiber Laser Sources for Integrated Photonic Sensors.

Lab-on-a-Chip (LoC) devices combining microfluidic analyte provision with integrated optical analysis are highly desirable for several applications in biological or medical sciences. While the microfluidic approach is already broadly addressed, some work needs to be done regarding the integrated optics, especially provision of highly integrable laser sources. Polymer optical fiber (POF) lasers represent an alignment-free, rugged, and flexible technology platform.

Homogeneous Distribution of Polymerizable Coumarin Dyes for Active Few Mode POF.

For most kinds of active polymer optical fibers, a homogeneous distribution of dye molecules over the entire fiber length and cross section is required. In this study, chemical bonding of dyes to (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) by copolymerization is achieved within the polymerization process instead of dissolving the dyes in the monomers. In combination with an improved fabrication mechanism, this leads to homogeneous dye distribution within the preforms.

Characterization of Double-Doped Polymer Optical Fibers as Luminescent Solar Concentrators.

This work reports on a diameter dependence analysis of the performance as luminescent solar concentrators of three self-fabricated polymer optical fibers (POFs) doped with a hybrid combination of dopants. The works carried out include the design and self-fabrication of the different diameter fibers; an experimental analysis of the output power, of the output irradiance and of the fluorescent fiber solar concentrator efficiency; a comparison of the experimental results with a theoretical model; a study of the performance of all the fibers under different simulated lighting conditions; and a calculation of the active fiber length of each of the samples, all of them as a function of the fiber core diameter. To the best of our knowledge, this paper reports the first analysis of the influence of the POF diameter for luminescent solar concentration applications.