Measurement of Liquids' Refractive Index with M-Z Interferometer Constructed by Nanowires

摘要

Based on evanescent-wave guiding properties of nanowire waveguides, it's proposed to use single-mode subwavelength-diameter silica nanowires as optical sensing. With the change of the refractive index of the ambient medium, the phase of the light propagating through the wire shifts, which could be obtained by solving Maxwell's equation, and that is used as a criterion for sensitivity estimation. So it's possible for us to employ Mach-Zehnder interferometer to detect different performance of phase shift in kinds of liquids. Compared with traditional sensors, this kind of nanowire sensor may have several advantages such as smaller size and weight, immunity to electromagnetic interferences, high sensitivity, and high multiplexing potentials. A novel solution of nanowire sensor is designed and its spatial interferometer properties are studied in this paper.