Versatile Optofluidic Fabry-Perot Sensor for Multiple Physical Parameters in Microfluidic Chips

An optofluidic sensor, which is composed of a fiber Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) and a microfluidic chip, is experimentally demonstrated to measure aerostatic pressure, local temperature, and fluidic flow rate in microfluidic chips. The aerostatic pressure sensitivity is as high as −2393.3 nm/Bar. By demodulating the aerostatic pressure and temperature with a sensitivity matrix, both the physical parameters can be predicted simultaneously. The noise-equivalent detection limit (NEDL) of aerostatic pressure is as low as 48.4 µBar. In addition, the experiment results show that the fluidic flow rate sensitivity is −1.8574 nm/(μl/min) and the NEDL of fluidic flow rate is 97.1 nl/min, respectively. The miniature optofluidic sensor based on the optical fiber Fabry-Perot interferometer provides a promising cost-effective sensing platform for monitoring multiple physical parameters in the microfluidic chips, which is of great significance for on-chip biochemical reactions.