Microstructured optical fibres: a novel tool to make light interact with gas efficiently

by Prof. Luc Thévenaz (Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne -EPFL)

Monday 9 Mar 2020, 14:30 → 16:00 Europe/Zurich

774/R-013 (CERN)

Abstract:

The possibility to create hole structures at the micrometric or even nanometric scale in optical glass fibres offers novel schemes for light guidance and opens new possibilities for light to interact with matter. The air holes present in the fibre cross section can be conveniently filled with fluids and the evanescent field of the guided light can interact over long distances with the trapped molecules in the holey structure. After reviewing the different possible structures and the principles supporting this new type of light guidance, we shall present some real applications realised by our group, such as reference spectroscopic cells and innovative sensing applications.

Biography: Luc Thévenaz received the M.Sc. degree and the Ph.D. degree in physics from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. In 1988 he joined the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne (EPFL) where he currently leads a research group involved in photonics, namely fibre optics and optical sensing. Research topics include fibre sensors, slow & fast light, nonlinear fibre optics and laser spectroscopy in gases. His expertise covers all applications of stimulated Brillouin scattering in optical fibres and he is known for his innovative concepts related to distributed fibre sensing pushing beyond barriers.

During his career he stayed at Stanford University, at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), at Tel Aviv University, at the University of Sydney and at the Polytechnic University of Valencia. In 2000 he co-founded the company Omnisens that is developing and commercializing advanced photonic instrumentation based on distributed fibre sensing.

He is now Coordinator of the H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks FINESSE (FIbre NErve Systems for Sensing). He is member of the Steering Committee of the International Conference on Optical Fibre Sensors and co-Executive Editor-in-Chief of the journal Nature Light: Science & Applications. He is Fellow of the IEEE and the Optical Society.

Microstructured optical fibres.pdf