Reduced graphene oxide for fiber-optic humidity sensing.

Graphene-based electrical chemical vapor sensors can achieve extremely high sensitivity, whereas the comparatively slow sensing response and recovery, the research focused on only low concentration detection, have been known as drawbacks for many applications requiring rapid and high concentration detection. Here we report a novel graphene-based fiber-optic relative humidity (RH) sensor relying on fundamentally different sensing mechanism. The sensor can achieve power variation of up to 6.9 dB in high relative humidity range (70-95%), and display linear response with correlation coefficient of 98.2%, sensitivity of 0.31 dB/%RH, response speed of faster than 0.13%RH/s, and good repeatability in 75-95%RH. Theoretical analysis of sensing mechanism can explain the experimental result, and reveal the broad applying prospect of the sensor for other kinds of chemical vapor detection. This novel graphene-based optical sensor provides a beneficial complement to the existing electrical ones, and will promote the employment of graphene in chemical sensing techniques.

[1]  G. Fudenberg,et al.  Ultrahigh electron mobility in suspended graphene , 2008, 0802.2389.

[2]  Andre K. Geim,et al.  Raman spectrum of graphene and graphene layers. , 2006, Physical review letters.

[3]  K. Novoselov,et al.  Giant intrinsic carrier mobilities in graphene and its bilayer. , 2007, Physical review letters.

[4]  Wei Li,et al.  Novel optical fiber humidity sensor based on a no-core fiber structure , 2013 .

[5]  Wei Li,et al.  Ultrafast all-optical graphene modulator. , 2014, Nano letters.

[6]  Li Feng-li,et al.  Optical Propagation Characteristics of Side-polished Fibers , 2006 .

[7]  L. Ocola,et al.  Gas detection using low-temperature reduced graphene oxide sheets , 2009 .

[8]  P. Kim,et al.  Experimental observation of the quantum Hall effect and Berry's phase in graphene , 2005, Nature.

[9]  Cheng-Liang Hsu,et al.  Fabrication of Humidity Sensor Based on Bilayer Graphene , 2014, IEEE Electron Device Letters.

[10]  Dae-Sik Lee,et al.  Flexible room-temperature NO2 gas sensors based on carbon nanotubes/reduced graphene hybrid films , 2010 .

[11]  F. Koppens,et al.  Graphene plasmonics: a platform for strong light-matter interactions. , 2011, Nano letters.

[12]  M. Soljavci'c,et al.  Plasmonics in graphene at infrared frequencies , 2009, 0910.2549.

[13]  Xudong Fan,et al.  Graphene nanoelectronic heterodyne sensor for rapid and sensitive vapour detection , 2014, Nature Communications.

[14]  Sunil K. Khijwania,et al.  An evanescent-wave optical fiber relative humidity sensor with enhanced sensitivity , 2005 .

[15]  B. H. Weiller,et al.  Practical chemical sensors from chemically derived graphene. , 2009, ACS nano.

[16]  Choon‐Gi Choi,et al.  Graphene-based polymer waveguide polarizer. , 2012, Optics express.

[17]  F. Arregui,et al.  Optical fiber humidity sensor based on a tapered fiber coated with agarose gel , 2000 .

[18]  F. Arregui,et al.  Nonadiabatic tapered single-mode fiber coated with humidity sensitive nanofilms , 2006, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[19]  G. Hanson.  Dyadic Green's functions and guided surface waves for a surface conductivity model of graphene , 2007, cond-mat/0701205.

[20]  Zhenhua Ni,et al.  Broadband graphene polarizer , 2011 .

[21]  K. Novoselov,et al.  Detection of individual gas molecules adsorbed on graphene. , 2006, Nature materials.

[22]  Jun Zhang,et al.  All-fiber-optic temperature sensor based on reduced graphene oxide , 2014 .

[23]  Nader Engheta,et al.  Transformation Optics Using Graphene , 2011, Science.

[24]  P. Kim,et al.  Quantum Hall states near the charge-neutral Dirac point in graphene. , 2007, Physical review letters.

[25]  Andre K. Geim,et al.  Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films , 2004, Science.

[26]  W. S. Hummers,et al.  Preparation of Graphitic Oxide , 1958 .

[27]  S. Mikhailov,et al.  New electromagnetic mode in graphene. , 2007, Physical review letters.

[28]  Dan Li,et al.  Graphene/Polyaniline Nanocomposite for Hydrogen Sensing , 2010 .

[29]  U Zeitler,et al.  Room-Temperature Quantum Hall Effect in Graphene , 2007, Science.

[30]  A. Geim,et al.  Two-dimensional gas of massless Dirac fermions in graphene , 2005, Nature.

[31]  Banshi D. Gupta,et al.  A novel probe for a fiber optic humidity sensor , 2001 .

[32]  Dongzhi Zhang,et al.  Humidity-sensing properties of chemically reduced graphene oxide/polymer nanocomposite film sensor based on layer-by-layer nano self-assembly , 2014 .

[33]  Joaquín Sevilla,et al.  Optical fiber relative-humidity sensor with polyvinyl alcohol film. , 2004, Applied optics.

[34]  Zhongqing Wei,et al.  Reduced graphene oxide molecular sensors. , 2008, Nano letters.

[35]  Xiang Zhang,et al.  A graphene-based broadband optical modulator , 2011, Nature.

[36]  Junhong Chen,et al.  Reduced graphene oxide for room-temperature gas sensors , 2009, Nanotechnology.

[37]  Xiang Cai,et al.  Conductive methyl blue-functionalized reduced graphene oxide with excellent stability and solubility in water , 2011 .

[38]  P. Su,et al.  Electrical and humidity-sensing properties of reduced graphene oxide thin film fabricated by layer-by-layer with covalent anchoring on flexible substrate , 2014 .

[39]  Mo Li,et al.  High-speed waveguide-coupled graphene-on-graphene optical modulators , 2012 .

[40]  A. Geim,et al.  Unconventional quantum Hall effect and Berry’s phase of 2π in bilayer graphene , 2006, cond-mat/0602565.