Chalcogenide Glass Fibers for Analytical Mid-IR Spectroscopy of Oil Products and Environmental Objects

In this paper, recent experimental results on the development of high-purity passive and active chalcogenide glasses and fibers for mid-IR fiber evanescent wave spectroscopy (FEWS) are presented. The high purity Ge-Se(-I), Ge-Sb-Se, Ge-As-Se-Te, and REE-doped Ga(In)-Ge-As(Sb)-Se glasses were prepared and studied. On the base of chalcogenide glass fibers, the sensor setup for studying the elemental composition of liquids by the method of evanescent spectroscopy was developed and created. To increase the sensitivity of FEWS sensors, novel types of chalcogenide fiber sensor probes were developed. Successful tests of different passive chalcogenide fibers as FEWS sensors and active doped fibers as luminescent middle infrared sources to determine the elemental composition of oil products and environmental objects were carried out.