Bonn 2025 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 49: Poster – Photonics, Lasers, and Applications
Q 49.1: Poster
Wednesday, March 12, 2025, 17:00–19:00, Tent
Application of a fs-laser-written Mach-Zehnder interferometer for characterisation of hydrogels — •Johannes Schnegas1, Karo Becker2, Alexander Szameit2, and Udo Kragl1, 3 — 1Universität Rostock, Institut für Chemie, Albert-Einstein-Str. 3a, 18059 Rostock, Deutschland — 2Universität Rostock, Institut für Physik, Albert-Einstein-Straße 23-24, 18059 Rostock, Deutschland — 3Universität Rostock, Department LL&M, Albert-Einstein-Straße 25, 18059 Rostock, Deutschland
Integrated optics offers a significant advantage in the design of miniaturised optical sensors for applications such as chemical sensing. An example of these devices is the integrated optical interferometer, such as the Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI). Many examples are provided in the literature, such as protein characterisation, methane detection, and concentration measurement. In this work, an fs-laser-written MZI fabricated in fused silica is presented, which is composed of two waveguides combined by evanescent field couplers. One part of each interferometer arm runs close below the glass surface. A sensor area was created by exposing one of these via mechanical polishing, while the other interferometer arm serves as a reference. A liquid sample applied to the sensor area results in a shifted phase to which the interferometer responds with a change in the output intensity. The integrated optical MZI will be used to characterise hydrogels, which are 3D polymer networks that can take up a large amount of water and have a large field of applications. The effect of water the uptake on the refractive index was investigated in this study.
Keywords: integrated optical circuit; laser-written interferometer; hydrogel