Professor Chen Zhichao's optical fiber sensor research team successfully coated silicon optical fibers with new materials for specific chemical and environmental sensing. The research team visited the Department of Chemistry of the Chinese University of Hong Kong to study how to coat the surface of circular silica waveguide structures with this new synthetic material.

This collaboration is the result of the joint efforts of the Sino-German Institute of Intelligent Manufacturing (SZTU) and the Department of Chemistry of CUHK (CUHK). The two parties will design, synthesize and develop new smart micro/nano sensors that can be used in any harsh environment. We hope this development will have further applications in new frontiers.

A master's student is measuring the pH of a coating material solution. This process is crucial because any deviation in the pH of the solution can seriously affect the structure of the coating on the silicon fiber and thus the performance of the sensor. He checks carefully to make sure that the coating materials are all prepared correctly.

A master's student is testing a newly developed fiber optic sensor he designed. He is examining how the sensor behaves under different strain levels. Once the experimental data is obtained, he will analyze it and study how to modify the sensor design to achieve the highest performance of the sensor.