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I would like to introduce you to Rodolfo A. Carrillo Betancourt, a Ph.D. student at the Laboratory of Photonic Devices and Optical Fiber Sensors at the Materials Research Institute from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (IIM-UNAM), who is sharing his exiting work on fluorosensors. Oscar González-Cortez, a Master student in the Microfabrication Laboratory from the Microwave Photonics Group in the Institute for Applied Sciences and Technology (ICAT), UNAM shares his current work along with the roots of how he got excited about optics and photonics. And Yu He, a postdoc at the Department of Electronic Engineering of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China shares how his research helps the developments in the communication industry.

Did you also get inspired by these stories and would you like to share your own? Please get in touch and tell us what fascinates you about the work and research that you are doing. We would like to hear from you.

Senta Jantzen
S.Jantzen@ieee.org

My name is Rodolfo A. Carrillo Betancourt, I am a Ph.D. student at the Laboratory of Photonic Devices and Optical Fiber Sensors at the Materials Research Institute from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (IIM-UNAM). My research interests include bioimaging, biophotonics and optical biosensors. I am currently working on the fabrication of fluorosensors based on fluorescent coatings deposited on optical fibers. The goal of my project is to evaluate the applicability of these devices in bioimaging, and in particular for the detection of autofluorescence from biological samples.

Because the autofluorescence signal is weak, its detection is generally complicated, and even more so if it is located in the UV region, where some devices have poor sensitivity and transmission. Since the UV emitted light will be converted to visible wavelengths by the fluorescent coatings, we expect that fluorosensors will provide a simpler means to analyze autofluorescence signals. I find this kind of fiber optic biosensors very interesting because their design requires the integration of optical fibers with polymer coatings; they also need to have a wide field of view in order to capture as much light as possible. We are therefore exploring different designs for optical fiber bundles that could fulfill this requirement. In addition, biomolecule discrimination is done through the fluorophores incorporated in the polymer coatings. In some cases coatings with more than one fluorophore will be required in order to improve the detection; therefore, the coating design will require optimization as well. Interesting, isn’t it? We still don’t know if this kind of sensors will be used in clinical applications in the future, but in the meantime, I am learning fun things that can be done with photonic devices.

My name is Oscar González-Cortez, I obtained my bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at the Engineering School of National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), in Mexico City. I am currently concluding my master’s degree working in the Microfabrication Laboratory from the Microwave Photonics Group in the Institute for Applied Sciences and Technology (ICAT), UNAM. My research project is based on efficient coupling between different slight multimodal and few-mode waveguides using custom mode field adapters, whether they are optical fibers or integrated waveguides. I theoretically investigated the considerations necessary to design these adapters and minimize the mode dependent losses in the transmitted spatial modes, especially for the higher-order modes. Preserving the higher-order modes allow to enable the use of large capacity waveguides with spatial and mode multiplexing systems, which could promote an increase in data transmission. This is of great interest in telecommunications and sensing applications.

I first walked into the lab a few years ago at the Photonics and Optical Fiber Devices Laboratory in the Research Materials Institute (IIM), also at UNAM. I eagerly started to work on subjects related in tapered optical fiber devices and embraced it as my bachelor’s graduation project. Since that, I have enjoyed working, using, and fabricating optical, photonic, and optoelectronic elements, as well as designing and manipulating micrometric-sized devices. At the present date, I collaborate with both laboratories, ICAT and IIM, to learn as much as possible I look forward to gaining more experience in the fiber optic industry and design new devices for use in laboratories.

My name is Yu He, I am a postdoc at the Department of Electronic Engineering of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. My focus is on silicon photonics devices, such as optical filters, (de)multiplexers, polarization controllers. It is of great interest to design and fabricate integrated devices, which can be used in data centers, on-chip interconnection and for many other applications.

In the picture, I am working on wafer cleaning using an ultrasonic machine, after that, the prepared chip will go through lithography and etching. So the pattern we designed in our head can be transferred to a SOI chip. With the standard CMOS processes, we can fabricate any graphics in a nanoscale. There is a sense of accomplishment to see the fabricated devices can be used in the real world to accelerate the development of the communications industry.