Editorial Special Issue on Photonic Crystal-Based Sensors - IEEE Xplore

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Maryanne Large studied physics at the University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, ... working towards the Ph.D. degree in optics at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 10, NO. 7, JULY 2010

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Editorial Special Issue on Photonic Crystal-Based Sensors

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HE development of photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) or, more generally, microstructured optical fibers (MOFs), have caused enormous excitement in the optics community. Such fibers achieve their guidance properties through a sometimes complex pattern of air-holes and can have unusual properties, even allowing light to be guided in air and other low-index media. It seems incredible to those of us working in the field but more than ten years have passed since the first demonstration. The initial excitement is still there but the field is now mature enough to move focus on applications. One of the most promising of these are sensors. PCFs combine the main advantages of standard optical fibers with new and exciting possibilities created by the presence of thin and long air channels that run all the way along the length of the fiber. Like conventional optical fiber sensors, PCF sensors can have long interrogation distances, or act as distributed sensors. They have complete immunity to electromagnetic interference, are small and lightweight allowing access in confined and/or spaces, and can potentially be easily and cheaply mass-produced. With PCFs however, a range of sensors now goes far beyond techniques such as Bragg gratings-based sensors. We can now use the multifunctional characteristics of PCFs, the possibility of playing with, for example, their mechanical and acoustic properties, or go to new directions opened by the presence of an air hole scaffold and/or the bandgap guiding. There is a wealth of opportunities too in terms of applications, from sensing within the body, structural health monitoring in buildings, and real-time monitoring of the environment or industrial processes. This Special Issue is the first one of the IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL to be fully dedicated to PCF sensors, and we hope it Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSEN.2010.2047960

will contribute toward crystallizing some of the new developments in this fascinating and multidisciplinary area. We thank the authors who honored us by submitting their manuscripts to this Special Issue, the reviewers for their valuable input and the IEEE staff for supporting the idea of this PCF dedicated issue of for making it happen.

MARYANNE LARGE, Guest Editor University of Sydney Institute of Photonics and Optical Science Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia [email protected] CRISTIANO M. B. CORDEIRO, Guest Editor Universidade Estadual de Campinas Department of Physics Campinas, São Paulo 13083-000 Brazil [email protected] MIGUEL V. ANDRÉS, Guest Editor University of Valencia Department of Applied Physics Valencia, 46010 Spain [email protected] IGNACIO R. MATIAS, Guest Editor Public University of Navarra Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Pamplona, 31006 Spain [email protected]

Maryanne Large studied physics at the University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia, before working towards the Ph.D. degree in optics at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. Since 2001, she has worked as a Senior Researcher at the University of Sydney, and led the team that developed microstructured polymer fibers. In 2009, she formed a spin-off company, Kiriama Pty, Ltd., to commercialize this technology. Apart from the microstructured fibers, her main interests are optical biomimemtics, plasmonics, and metamaterials.

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IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 10, NO. 7, JULY 2010

Cristiano M. B. Cordeiro received the Ph.D. degree in physics from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, SP, Brazil, in 2003. Since 2008, he has been a member of the physics faculty at UNICAMP. His research interests include the design and applications of specialty optical fibers, in particular, photonic crystal fibers. Dr. Cordeiro chaired the First Workshop on Specialty Optical Fibers and Their Applications (WSOF 2008).

Miguel V. Andrés (M’91) was born in Valencia, Spain, in 1957. He received the Licenciado en Física degree and the Doctor en Física (Ph.D.) degree both from the Universidad de Valencia, Valencia, Spain, in 1979 and 1985, respectively. He is a Professor of Applied Physics in the Departamento de Física Aplicada y Electromagnetismo, Universidad de Valencia, Spain, and Head of the Laboratorio de Fibras Ópticas that belongs to the Instituto de Ciencia de los Materiales de la Universidad de Valencia. From 1984 to 1987, he was visiting for several periods the Department of Physics, University of Surrey, U.K., as a Research Fellow. Until 1984, he was engaged in research on microwave surface waveguides. His current research interests include the fabrication of photonic crystal fibers and fiber-optics components based on acousto-optic interaction, photo-inscription of diffraction gratings and fiber tapers, as well as the exploitation of these fabrication techniques for the development of new optical fiber light sources and lasers, sensors and microwave photonics. Dr. Andrés is a member of the Optical Society of America (OSA) and the Institute of Optics (IOP).

Ignacio R. Matias (SM’03) received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical and electronic engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), Madrid, Spain, in 1992 and 1996, respectively. He is currently a Professor with the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and the Director of the School of Engineering and Sciences, Public University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain. He has coauthored more than 200 books, book chapters, and journal papers mainly related to optical fiber sensors. He has been involved in more than 50 research projects holding more than a dozen patents and copyrights and promoting several spin-offs. Prof. Matias has received several scientific and research awards. He is a Senior Editor of the IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL.