[OPTICAL REVIEW Vol. 7, No. 2 (2000) 152-157]
Active Optical Poly(vinylchloride) Thin-Film Waveguide Ion Sensor
Kyungho KIM and Haruyuki MINAMITANI
Department of Applied Physics and Physico-informatics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University, 3-14-1, Hiyoshi, Yokohama, 223-8522 Japan
(Received October 1, 1999; Accepted November 29, 1999)
The effectiveness of a proposed PVC (Poly(vinylchloride)) thin-film waveguide ion sensor with high sensitivity which is based on a polymer matrix to measure the concentration of various biochemical ions is assessed. The waveguide is made of PVC co-polymer matrix containing ionophore, dioctylphthalate and chromoionophore, and plays important roles both in light propagation and in selective ion sensing. To evaluate the efficiency of the sensor, standard calcium solution is applied. Results showed the proposed sensor to be very effective as an ion sensor. This active waveguide sensor has the advantages of utilizing both the molecular recognition technique and the waveguide detection technique.
Key words : polymer waveguide, thin-film, ion sensor, optical sensor, evanescent field, mass fractal, surface fractal, combined fractal, self-similarity, power law, fractal dimension