<title>Miniaturized integrated optic chemical sensors for environmental monitoring and remediation</title>

Abstract

The use of integrated optic chemical sensors in environmental monitoring and remediation applications offers many advantages, the most prominent being that they can easily accommodate multiple sensing-elements, are miniaturized, lightweight, and immune to electromagnetic interference. We are developing versatile, multi-analyte, micro-miniaturized integrated optic chemical sensor (IOCS) technologies for use in closed-loop control and process monitoring for industrial and environmental applications. We have demonstrated a complete integrated optic sensor system and tested it by simultaneously identifying and quantifying samples containing traces of metal ions in a water stream. Conversion of the optical information into control signals is accomplished by a wavelength-division multiplexed optoelectronic unit, which can be remotely located, connected via optical fibers. The simplicity of this process makes this a very promising approach for the fabrication of commercially viable integrated optic devices.