Sensing of airborne molecular contaminants based on microfiber coupler with mesoporous silica coating

Abstract Airborne molecular contaminants (AMCs) are critical issues for the performance of optics in high power lasers (HPLs). In this work we demonstrate an AMCs sensor based on an optical microfiber coupler (OMC) with mesoporous silica coating experimentally. AMCs adhered on the mesoporous silica coating modifies the surrounding refractive index (RI). Using Beam Propagation Method (BPM), the proposed structure was analyzed to demonstrate the feasibility of AMCs sensing. By coating a mesoporous silica layer on the surface of sensing area, the proposed structure was able to operate as an AMCs sensor. By monitoring the spectral shift in the wavelength domain, the sensor was shown to be capable of detecting concentration of AMCs. The experimental results show that the sensitivity of the sensor is concentration-dependent. The maximum sensitivity of 0.541nm/(mg/m 3 ) is achieved. The detected signal is found to be proportional to AMCs present.