Design of an Artificial Opal/Photonic Crystal Interface for Alcohol Intoxication Assessment: Capillary Condensation in Pores and Photonic Materials Work Together.

Alcohol intoxication has a dangerous effect on human health and is often associated with a risk of catastrophic injuries and alcohol-related crimes. A demand to address this problem adheres to the design of new sensor systems for the real-time monitoring of exhaled breath. We introduce a new sensor system based on a porous hydrophilic layer of submicron silica particles (SiO SMPs) placed on a one-dimensional photonic crystal made of TaO/SiO dielectric layers whose operation relies on detecting changes in the position of surface wave resonance during capillary condensation in pores.

SERS Platform Based on Hollow-Core Microstructured Optical Fiber: Technology of UV-Mediated Gold Nanoparticle Growth.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a powerful technique for biosensing. However, SERS analysis has several concerns: the signal is limited by a number of molecules and the area of the plasmonic substrate in the laser hotspot, and quantitative analysis in a low-volume droplet is confusing due to the change of concentration during quick drying. The usage of hollow-core microstructured optical fibers (HC-MOFs) is thought to be an effective way to improve SERS sensitivity and limit of detection through the effective irradiation of a small sample volume filling the fiber capillaries.