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We present a one-step fabrication method for a new multiplexed electrospray emitter with nine parallel micronozzles. The nozzles were formed by wet chemical etching of the end of a microstructured silica fiber containing nine 10 μm flow channels. By carefully adjusting the water flow through the channels while etching, we controlled the shape of the conical micronozzles and were able to obtain conditions under which the micronozzles, together with the flow channels, formed optical micro-axicon lenses. When 1064 nm light was guided through the flow channels and focused by the micro-axicon lenses into the Taylor cones, we were able to increase the desolvation of a model analyte and thereby increased the spray current produced by the emitter. This work paves the way towards a rapidly modulated mass-spectrometry source having a greatly enhanced throughput.

A chemical sensor based on a coated long-period grating has been prepared and characterized. Designer coatings based on polydimethylsiloxane were prepared by the incorporation of diphenylsiloxane and titanium cross-linker in order to provide enhanced sensitivity for a variety of key environmental pollutants and optimal refractive index of the coating. Upon microextraction of the analyte into the polymer matrix, an increase in the refractive index of the coating resulted in a change in the attenuation spectrum of the long-period grating. The grating was interrogated using ring-down detection as a means to amplify the optical loss and to gain stability against misalignment and power fluctuations. Chemical differentiation of cyclohexane and xylene was achieved and a detection limit of 300 ppm of xylene vapour was realized.

Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBGs) are known to be sensitive acoustic transducers and have previously been used for the photoacoustic detection of small solid samples. Here, we demonstrate the use of an FBG as an on-line detector for liquid chromatography. The FBG was inserted into a silica capillary and the photoacoustic response from the effluent was generated by a 10 ns pulsed laser. The acoustic pulse was quantified by the FBG through a characteristic change in the reflection spectrum. Good repeatability and linear response were obtained over three orders of magnitude (R(2)0.99), and the limit of detection of Coumarin 440 was determined to be 5 microM. The technique was successfully coupled to high performance liquid chromatography and applied to on-line analysis of a three-compound solution. Photoacoustic detection in liquid chromatography using FBGs is a label-free method, which can be applied to the detection of any chromogenic compound irrespective of its fluorogenic properties. It is a simple, inexpensive, and inherently micron-sized technique, insensitive to electromagnetic interference.

Excitation emission matrix (EEM) and cavity ring-down (CRD) spectral signatures have been used to detect and quantitatively assess contamination of jet fuels with aero-turbine lubricating oil. The EEM spectrometer has been fiber-coupled to permit in situ measurements of jet turbine oil contamination of jet fuel. Parallel Factor (PARAFAC) analysis as well as Principal Component Analysis and Regression (PCA/PCR) were used to quantify oil contamination in a range from the limit of detection (10 ppm) to 1000 ppm. Fiber-loop cavity ring-down spectroscopy using a pulsed 355 nm laser was used to quantify the oil contamination in the range of 400 ppm to 100,000 ppm. Both methods in combination therefore permit the detection of oil contamination with a linear dynamic range of about 10,000.