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We developed a high spatial resolution and sensitive detector particularly suitable for radiation dose measurements in radiotherapy at small fields and X-ray imaging applications. The detector is based on a silica optical fiber whose sensitive terminal is functionalized by grafting Ag-doped ZnS scintillating materials that emit blue luminescence under X-ray irradiation. Due to the small scintillating head of the detector, the acquisition signal is quite low, and it is measured by a sensitive photon counter plugged at the other terminal of the fiber. The weaker signal can be enhanced significantly by adding a metal coating over the scintillator. Therefore, this study presents the effect of metal thickness and density on the signal amplification at high irradiation energies of 6 MeV and 15 MeV using a Linear Accelerator (LINAC). In addition, the stem effect was characterized for regular to small field beam size and shows that the detector is almost free from stem contribution during high energy irradiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A $1\times 2$ multimode interferometer beam splitter based on mid-infrared emitting chalcogenides waveguides is designed. This device multiplexes mid-infrared light in two channels whose respective passbands overlap either CO2 or CO absorption bands, respectively between 4.20- $4.32~\mu \text{m}$ and 4.50- $4.86~\mu \text{m}$. The proposed device offers a low-cost solution for monolithic combination of broadband on-chip mid-infrared light emission with dispersive spectroscopic element devoted to mid-IR multigas sensing applications. Based on restrictive interference mechanism in a $1\times 2$ multimode interferometer, the multimode section dimensions (width and length) are engineered to increase the imbalance between the two ports for the two passbands and consequently to increase the output contrast ratio. Tolerances to variations from the optimum device design resulting from processing conditions (materials fabrication and sputtering, photolithography and dry etching steps) are assessed. In particular, the $1\times 2$ multimode interferometer diplexer spectral transmission is investigated as a function of deposited film refractive index and multimode section dimensions (width and length) deviation from designed values. Input and output ports tapering is introduced to reduce the device insertion loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applied methods for detecting water impurities in organic solvents, such as Fischer titration, include wayward equipment and toxic reagents. This method is inapplicable for detecting H2O in D2O, but suitable techniques like NMR-, IR-, and mass-spectrometry are costly. We report a low-cost, novel luminescent sensor material based on terbium-europium 3D MOF compound developed for facile, portable, and disposable monitoring of water quantities. Our sensor is able to determine water traces in D2O and aprotic organic solvents. Treating the material to solvent leads to the change in intensities ratio of terbium and europium bands in emission spectra depending of water content and nature of solvent. For D2O calibrating plot $\text{I}_{\mathrm {Eu}}/\text{I}_{\mathrm {Tb}}$ –%H2O is linear whereas for dioxane and acetonitrile the dependence becomes linear in the coordinates $\text{I}_{\mathrm {Eu}}/\text{I}_{\mathrm {Tb}}$ -ln(%H2O). The results reveal the potential application of developed sensor for ratiometric quantitation of H2O admixtures in D2O, organic solvents, transformer oil, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A narrowband luminescent coating for germicidal 254-nm ultraviolet optical fiber sensors has been developed. A mixture of phosphor and epoxy is used for this coating. The luminescent-clad sensing principle uses a fiber, which has had its cladding and jacket both removed, and a photoluminescent coating replacing the cladding. As the coating luminesces, part of the emission is coupled to the fiber core through evanescent wave coupling. The combined absorption spectrum of the phosphor and the transmission spectrum of the epoxy result in a narrow sensitivity band of wavelengths being detected, centered around 254 nm. The absorption of the 254-nm radiation incident on the coating is emitted as visible light in the optical fiber sensor. This paper describes the development and testing of this narrowband coating using a spectrophotometer to examine its responsivity, and a luminescent-coated optical fiber sensor is compared with a UV photodiode when illuminated by a UV lamp. This optical fiber sensor monitors the output of UV lamps for stabilization and control purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We describe a novel biochemical sensing method and its potential new biosensing applications. A light-sensitive complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) chip prepared through a standard 0.5-μm CMOS process was developed for measuring biochemical reactions. A light producing enzymatic reaction catalyzed by horseradish peroxidase (HRP) was designed as a platform reaction to determine the concentration of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) by the CMOS chip with a standard semiconductor parameter analyzer (HP4145). The kinetics of enzymatic reaction were determined and compared with a standard and sophisticated fluorometer (Hitachi F-4500) in a biochemical laboratory. Similar results were obtained by both instruments. Using glucose oxidase as an example, we further demonstrated that the HRP platform can be used to determine other H2O2 producing reactions with the CMOS system. The result points to an important application of the CMOS chip in biological measurements and in diagnosis of various health factors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]