Micro-analysis of Lanthanides and Actinides: A New Approach by a Co-integration of Optical and Fluidic Guides

Abstract In this paper, we describe some techniques useful for performing chemical measurements requiring very low sample volumes. This aspect is particularly important in the nuclear industry, where the need for controlling the nuclear fuel processes requires a high number of chemical analysis. Moreover, the radiotoxic hazard is proportional to the sample volume. The approach proposed here combines integrated optics on glass by ion-exchange and microfluidics. A first demonstrator is an integrated Young interferometer on a microchannel. Tested with a solution of cobalt in ethanol, it has a detection limit of 4x10 -3 M with a probed volume of (33.5 ± 3.5) pL. In order to achieve lower detection limits with even smaller volumes, we also propose some preliminary results on an integrated absorption spectrometer exploiting the principle of slot waveguides.