• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.3 no.5
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• pp.423-428
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• 2019

Visibility of road-surface markings is one of the critical issues that should be secured for self-driving cars as well as human drivers. Glass beads are taking on the role of retroreflectors, and therefore are considered a necessity in modern pavements. In this context, retroreflectance is sensitively dependent not only on the refractive index of glass beads but also on that of the surrounding medium. This implies that the optimum refractive index of glass beads immersed in water, i.e. under wet conditions, is different from that of glass beads surrounded by air, i.e. under dry conditions. A refractive index of approximately 1.9, which is known to maximize retroreflectance under dry conditions, actually exhibits much poorer retroreflectance under wet conditions. This suggests that glass beads with optimal refractive index for wet conditions need to be installed together with those for dry conditions. We propose a facile but practical model capable of calculating retroreflectance of glass beads surrounded by an arbitrary medium, here water in particular, and experimentally verify its capability of assessing the refractive index of commercial glass beads. Changes in retroreflectance according to the mixing ratio of glass beads with different refractive indices are also discussed, in an effort to propose the proper use of glass beads produced for dry and wet conditions.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.243-249
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• 2021

In this paper, the sensing characteristics of a double cladding fiber (DCF) long-period fiber grating (LPFG) to the surrounding refractive index (SRI) are studied. The outer cladding of the DCF plays the role of the overlay, thus, the mode transition (MT) phenomenon of DCF can be induced by etching the outer cladding radius instead of coating overlays. The response characteristics of the effective refractive index (ERI) of the cladding mode to the outer cladding radius are analyzed. It is found that in the MT range, the change rate of ERIs of cladding modes is relatively larger than that for other ranges. Further, based on the features of the mode transition region (MTR), the phase-matching curve of the 11^th cladding mode is investigated, and the response of the DCF-LPFG to the SRI is characterized by the change of wavelength intervals between the dual peaks under different outer cladding radii. The numerical simulation results show that the SRI sensitivity is greatly improved, which is available to 3484.0 nm/RIU with the fitting degree 0.998 in the SRI range of 1.33-1.37. The proposed DCF-LPFG can provide new theoretical support for designing the DCF-LPFG refractive index sensor with excellent performances of sensitivity, linearity and structure.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.293-300
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• 2022

This study investigated a graded-refractive-index (GRIN) coating pattern capable of improving the light extraction efficiency of GaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The planar LEDs had total internal reflection thanks to the large difference in refractive index between the LED semiconductor and the surrounding medium (air). The main goal of this paper was to reduce the trapped light inside the LED by controlling the refractive index using various compositions of (TiO₂)_x(SiO₂)_1-x in GRIN LEDs consisting of five dielectric layers. Several types of multilayer LEDs were simulated and it was determined the transmittance value of the LEDs with many layers was greater than the LEDs with less layers. Then, the specific ranges of incident angles of the individual layers which depend on the refractive index were evaluated. According to theoretical calculations, the light extraction efficiency (LEE) of the five-layer GRIN is 25.29 %, 28.54 % and 30.22 %, respectively. Consequently, the five-layer GRIN LEDs patterned enhancement outcome LEE over the reference planar LEDs. The results suggest the increased light extraction efficiency is related to the loss of Fresnel transmission and the release of the light mode trapped inside the LED chip by the graded-refractive-index.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.151-155
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• 2012

We have investigated a refractive index sensor based on a cladded plastic optical fiber taper. The optical transmission and sensing characteristics of the device were illuminated in terms of ray optics. The sensor devices showed that the optical transmittance strongly depends on the refractive index of the external medium surrounding the tapered region.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.444-449
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• 2021

A photonic crystal coupled-cavity waveguide created on silicon-on-insulator is designed to act as a refractive-index-sensing device at midinfrared wavelengths around 4 ㎛. To realize high sensitivity, effort is made to engineer the structural parameters to obtain strong modal confinement, which can enhance the interaction between the resonance modes and the analyzed sample. By adjusting some parameters, including the shape of the cavity, the width of the coupling cavity, and the size of the surrounding dielectric columns, a high-sensitivity refractive-index sensor based on the optimized photonic crystal coupled-cavity waveguide is proposed, and a sensitivity of approximately 2620 nm/RIU obtained. When an analyte is measured in the range of 1.0-1.4, the sensor can always maintain a high sensitivity of greater than 2400 nm/RIU. This work demonstrates the viability of high-sensitivity photonic crystal waveguide devices in the midinfrared band.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.135-142
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• 2012

We have developed a measurement method of the refractive index profile of an optical fiber by using diffraction phase microscopy. In the microscope system, the reference light was extracted directly from the probe light that passed through the sample by means of pinhole filtering with a diffraction grating. The spatial interference pattern produced by the probe light and the reference light was processed to generate the phase image of the sample fiber. The index profile was obtained by the inverse Abel transform of the phase profile. In order to remove the background phase that originated from the index difference between the cladding and the surrounding medium, the background phase was calculated from the phase data of the cladding to make a core phase profile that can be directly transformed to the index profile of the core without the full phase image that includes the entire cladding part.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.95-99
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• 2013

We proposed and demonstrated a fiber optic sensor for detecting the thermo-optic coefficient of a liquid, based on a cascade of two different FBGs. One of the two FBGs was etched, and its cladding was removed, for evanescent wave coupling with an external liquid. The Bragg wavelength of the non-etched FBG was used as a reference for the temperature of the surrounding liquid. The refractive index (RI) and thermo-optic (T-O) coefficient of a liquid can be detected from the difference between the Bragg wavelengths of the two FBGs, and the variation of the difference in accordance with temperature.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.123-128
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• 2005

An electrically controllable fiber Bragg grating inscribed in a hydrogen-loaded standard single-mode fiber with liquid-crystal cladding is presented. Control of the optic axis of liquid crystals by means of external electric fields results in the change of reflectivity and Bragg wavelength of the grating. The increase of surrounding refractive index of a fiber makes effective refractive index of a propagation mode higher, which results in high field confinement and longer Bragg wavelength. The reduction of the fiber diameter by chemical etching process improves the long-range ordering of liquid-crystal molecules and reduces controlling voltage. The tunable ranges of reflectivity and Bragg wavelength of the liquid crystal-cladding fiber Bragg grating were $\~4.6dB\;and\;\~0.3nm$, respectively.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2020

Three-dimensional microscopic approaches in histopathology display multiplex properties that present puzzling questions for specimens as related to their comprehensive volumetric information. This information includes spatial distribution of molecules, three-dimensional co-localization, structural formation and whole data set that cannot be determined by two-dimensional section slides due to the inevitable loss of spatial information. Advancement of optical instruments such as two-photon microscopy and high performance objectives with motorized correction collars have narrowed the gap between optical theories and the actual reality of deep tissue imaging. However, the benefits gained by a prolonged working distance, two-photon laser and optimized beam alignment are inevitably diminished because of the light scattering phenomenon that is deeply related to the refractive index mismatch between each cellular component and the surrounding medium. From the first approaches with simple crude refractive index matching techniques to the recent cutting-edge integrated tissue clearing methods, an achievement of transparency without morphological denaturation and eradication of natural and fixation-induced nonspecific autofluorescence out of real signal are key factors to determine the perfection of tissue clearing and the immunofluorescent staining for high contrast images. When performing integrated laboratory workflow of tissue for processing frozen and formalin-fixed tissues, clear lipid-exchanged acrylamide-hybridized rigid imaging/immunostaining/in situ hybridization-compatible tissue hydrogel (CLARITY), an equipment-based tissue clearing method, is compatible with routine procedures in a histopathology laboratory.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.144-149
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• 2013

In this research, we developed a biosensor to detect lung cancer-specific biomarker using Anodic Aluminum Oxide (AAO) chip based on interference and nano surface plasmon resonance (nanoSPR). The nano-porous AAO chip was fabricated $2{\mu}m$ of pore-depth by two-step anodizing method for surface uniformity. NanoSPR has sensitivity to the refractive index (RI) of the surrounding medium and also provides simple and label-free detection when specific antibodies are immobilized to the Au-deposited surface of nano-porous AAO chip. To detect the lung cancer-specific biomarker, antibodies were immobilized on the surface of the chip by Self Assembled Monolayer (SAM) method. Since then lung cancer-specific biomarker was applied atop the antibodies immobilized layer. The specific reaction of the antigen-antibody contributed to the change in the refractive index that cause shift of resonance spectrum in the interference pattern. The Limit of Detection (LOD) was 1 fg/ml by using our nano-porous AAO biosensor chip.