This talk reviews the light-based physical, chemical and biological sensing approaches developed at the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS) and the Centre for Nanoscale BioPhotonics (CNBP) at Adelaide University utilizing microstructured optical fibers made of new materials, surfaces and structures. Suspended-, exposed- and hollow-core microstructured fibers offer important benefits compared to traditional techniques such as small sample volumes, high sensitivity, distributed or localised sensing, remote sensing, field-deploying capability, multiplexing. Depending on the intended application, a host of sensing modalities have been utilized including labelled fluorescence techniques, and label-free methods such as surface plasmon resonance, fiber Bragg gratings, interferometry and Raman scattering. The use of various functionalization techniques adds specificity to both ions and molecules to be sensed and enables re-usability of sensors.
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