Experimental development of a compact optical emission detector based on the assembly of a polymer-metal and a standard silica fiber is presented in this paper. This device is exploited in a proof-of-principle experiment for gas detection application by means of plasma spectroscopy in the visible-Near Infrared spectral region. A multimode fiber (MMF) is associated with a functional hollow dual-electrodes elongated structure fabricated by the direct preform-to-fiber homothetic co-drawing. A potential of 1.5 kV is applied between the two electrodes embedded inside the composite cladding, which generates an atmospheric pressure dc glow discharge at the tip of the fiber bundle. The emitted light is then collected by the MMF for optical diagnostics. Probing of different atmospheres is presented at the end of this study.
Keywords: fiber design and fabrication; gas sensor; hybrid fibers; multi-material fiber; plasma.