<title>Evanescent-wave fiber optic biosensor: challenges for real-world sensing</title>

Abstract

We have developed an evanescent wave fiber optic biosensor which uses long fibers to facilitate the analysis of environmental and clinical samples for hazardous materials. The use of antibody/antigen binding with fluorescence-based sensing in the evanescent wave yields a sensor that is unique, adaptable, and sensitive. The variety of substances that could be detected is limited only by their antigenicity. Sensing in the real world poses several challenges that must be met. We have focused on the development of several aspects of the sensing system to transition this sensor into a field deployable device. Recent developments presented here include optimized fiber optic probe tapering, a flow chamber to facilitate sampling, and probe regeneration for repetitive analysis. Preliminary experiments assessing the potential to detect analytes in biological and environmental fluids are also presented.