Evaporation of volatile compounds in suspended-core fibers

Abstract

A sensing configuration for fluid evaporation monitoring using a suspended-core fiber tip is proposed. Strong differences between the evaporation processes of acetone and isopropyl alcohol were observed, both in terms of the signal's intensity fluctuations and total duration. In each fluid, the main signal variations were due to changes in reflectivity inside a collapsed region of the suspended-core fiber near the spliced interface with a standard single-mode fiber. After further analysis with a wider array of substances, this configuration could, in the future, be used to detect and study the evaporation of different volatile organic compounds. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America