Towards Optical Excitation of Liquid-Dispersed Carbon Nanotubes inside Hollow-Core Photonic Bandgap Fiber
Loading...
Date
2022-09-28
Authors
Houk, Anna Maria
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Waterloo
Abstract
This thesis is a study of the excitation of liquid-suspended carbon nanotubes (CNTs)
confined in an optical waveguide. Desirable optical properties such as narrow emission and
excitation bandwidths, as well as wide selectivity over the near-infrared spectrum, warrant
the exploration of using CNTs as a gain medium in fiber-integrated lasers. Because of the
necessity of liquid suspension to achieve high intensity fluorescence from CNTs, Hollow-core
photonic bandgap fiber (HCPBF) was filled with common solvents, deionized water and
deuterium dioxide(D2 O) to create an opto-fluidic waveguide. D2 O Liquid-HCPBFs with
operational bandgaps in the near-infrared spectrum using telecom-wavelength HCPBFs
drop to around half of their hollow-core transmission intensity due to propagating though a
higher refractive index medium but still maintain a small mode-area. Preserving refractive-
index scaling laws, the characteristics of hollow-core wavguides that make them desirable
for engineering photon-particle interactions are maintained in the liquid-core counterparts.
The interaction of the fiber mode with nano-scale suspended particles was first tested
with indocyanine green, a fluorescent dye, due to its simple preparation and overlapping
emission and excitation spectra with the bandgap of the liquid-HCPBFs. Within the
Liquid-HCPBF, the fraction of fluorescence for ICG collected was an order of magnitude
greater than that of collection efficiencies measured for dye samples contained in cuvettes.
Following the results of the ICG dye, CNT solutions dominant with CNT chiralities within
the Liquid-HCPBF bandgap were prepared and characterized. Initial Liquid-HCPBF with
CNTs were began but the investigation with CNTs remains open.
Description
Keywords
carbon nanotube, cnt, hollow-core, bandgap fiber, optofluidics, indocyanine green, ICG