Temperature and refractive index sensor using a high-birefringence fiber loop mirror and single mode-coreless-single mode fiber structure

A novel fiber optic sensor for the simultaneous measurement of refractive index and temperature is reported. The sensor consists of a high-birefringence fiber loop mirror and a section of single mode-coreless-single mode fiber structure. The single mode-coreless-single mode fiber structure served as a refractometer while the high-birefringence fiber loop mirror was used to measure temperature. The multimode interference valley of the single mode-coreless-single mode fiber structure was sensitive to the surrounding refractive index of liquids (96.42 nm/refractive index unit) and had almost no response to temperature fluctuations. The high-birefringence fiber loop mirror was highly sensitive to temperature (1.98 nm/°C) but was insensitive to changes in refractive index. The theoretical and experimental results demonstrated simultaneous measurement of temperature and refractive index. The optimum resolution was 2.07 × 10^?4 refractive index units and 0.01°C.     

Note: Optical fiber milled by focused ion beam and its application for Fabry-Pérot refractive index sensor

We introduce a highly compact fiber-optic Fabry-Pérot refractive index sensor integrated with a fluid channel that is fabricated directly near the tip of a 32 μm in diameter single-mode fiber taper. The focused ion beam technique is used to efficiently mill the microcavity from the fiber side and finely polish the end facets of the cavity with a high spatial resolution. It is found that a fringe visibility of over 15 dB can be achieved and that the sensor has a sensitivity of ~1731 nm/RIU (refractive index units) and a detection limit of ~5.78 × 10(-6) RIU. This miniature integrated all-in-fiber optofludic sensor may find use in minimal-invasive biomedical applications.     

Sensitivity-optimized long-period fiber gratings for refractive index and temperature sensing

A long-period fiber grating sensor was fabricated by periodically changing the structure of single-mode fiber with an electric arc discharge technique. After the fabrication, the refractive index and temperature sensitivities were optimized by etching the cladding with hydrofluoric acid solution. The experimental results illustrate that the thinner cladding shows relatively higher refractive index and temperature sensitivities for the same order cladding mode, which are accordant with that of numerical simulation. After the long-period fiber grating was etched for 15?min, average refractive index sensitivities of 214?nm/refractive index unit (RIU) (1.3333?–?1.3931) and 1987?nm/RIU (1.4115–1.4555) were achieved. An extremely higher refractive index sensitivity of 2731?nm/RIU appears near 1.4555. By systematically studying the temperature sensing characteristic of cladding-etched long-period fiber grating in this work for the first time, the temperature sensitivity can reach as high as 144.23?pm/°C when the ambient temperature changes from 30 to 80°C. This work provides a theoretical reference for the fabrication of a high-sensitivity refractive index and temperature sensor based on arc-induced long-period fiber grating.     

Refractive index sensor based on fiber loop ring-down spectroscopy

An optical fiber refractive index sensor based on fiber loop ring-down spectroscopy and a tapered fiber was fabricated using an ordinary single mode fiber with an arc fusion splicer. The performance of the sensor was controlled by the parameters of the tapered fiber. A fiber loop ring-down spectroscopy system was employed to enhance the sensitivity and demodulate the transmission spectrum. The results showed that a sensor with a waist diameter of 14 m and a length of 1.2 mm had good optical performance. By monitoring the ring-down time of the system, relatively high sensitivity of 411.576 s/ RIU was achieved with refractive index values from 1.333 to 1.412. This sensor offers few interferences, high sensitivity, easy fabrication, and low cost.     

开环光子晶体光纤化学传感器的设计

为了提高低折射率化学物质监测的灵敏度,采用光子晶体光纤设计了一种在开环内镀有金薄膜的表面等离子体共振传感器。利用仿真软件COMSOL Multiphysics 5.6系统地研究了开环半径、内部气孔大小、金属膜层厚度对该传感器灵敏度的影响。最终在2800～4700 nm的工作波段内设计出折射率检测范围为1.26～1.31的低折射率传感器。该传感器平均灵敏度高达22 500 nm/RIU,最高灵敏度达33 000 nm/RIU。在七氟醚、卤代醚、含氟有机物等低折射率物质检测方向具有较好的应用前景。     

Sensitivity-enhanced single-mode fiber-tapered hollow core fiber-single-mode fiber Mach–Zehnder interferometer for refractive index measurements

In this paper, a sensitive-enhanced single-mode fiber—tapered hollow core fiber—single-mode fiber Mach–Zehnder interferometer is demonstrated for refractive index sensing. The sensitivity was improved by forming an up-taper at the two splicing joints and concave cone in hollow core fiber. The up-tapered regions served as a more effective mode splitter/combiner, and the tapered hollow core fiber was used to generate a stronger evanescent field to enhance the interaction of light with the analyte. According to the principles of interference between the cladding and fundamental modes, we performed refractive index measurements. The experiments indicated that the proposed sensor has a high refractive index sensitivity of 214.97?nm/RIU in the refractive index range of 1.333–1.379, with a minimum refractive index measurement resolution of 9.3?×?10^?5. In addition, the sensor had a low temperature response of 2.96?pm/°C in the range from 50 to 85°C and a low cross sensitivity of 1.377?×?10^?5 RIU/°C. The proposed sensor is attractive for its high refractive index sensitivity, easy fabrication, low cross sensitivity, and good mechanical strength, making it of potential value for refractive index measurements for chemical and biological sensing.     

Simultaneous measurement of refractive index and temperature based on a long period fiber grating inscribed in a photonic crystal fiber with an electric-arc discharge

A novel fiber sensor composed by two single mode fibers and long period fiber grating based on a photonic crystal fiber prepared by periodic discharge heating has been experimentally investigated to measure refractive index and temperature. A Mach-Zehnder interferometer was formed due to the presence of two fusion spliced collapsed regions in the photonic crystal fiber. The resonance dip and interference pattern were differently influenced by the ambient disturbance, so the dual-parameters were simultaneously measured by analyzing the characteristics of transmission spectrum. After the experimental measurements, refractive index and temperature sensitivities of 117.28?nm/RIU and ?86.29?pm/°C were realized. Therefore, the reported sensor with advantages of easy fabrication, simple structure, and small size has the potential for simultaneous refractive index and temperature measurements involving biochemical sensing applications.     

马赫-曾德尔干涉集成化的全光纤磁场与温度传感器

为了简化光纤磁场与温度传感器的结构并提高传感器灵敏度,设计并制作了马赫-曾德尔干涉集成化的全光纤磁场与温度传感器。将单根光纤的马赫-曾德尔模间干涉结构和双臂马赫-曾德尔干涉结构结合:将总长度为1.2m的单模光纤部分制备成长度为2.7cm、锥腰直径为30.1μm的锥形微纳光纤,并得到了拉锥时间与锥腰直径的关系。将锥形微纳光纤放置尼龙槽内并包覆磁凝胶构成传感头,实现模间干涉的马赫-曾德尔磁场传感器;将磁场传感器通过两耦合比为50%∶50%的耦合器并联带有可调谐光衰减器的单模光纤形成马赫-曾德尔干涉的温度传感器。从理论上分析了光谱漂移对磁场和温度传感的特性关系,实验测得室温下磁场强度在25~50mT时,磁场传感的灵敏度为0.301 14nm/mT;在磁场强度为0,温度由25℃升高到30℃时,温度传感的灵敏度为0.518 86nm/℃。该传感器可广泛应用于电力系统放电检测、材料加工、安全监控等领域。     

Determination of refractive index by a U-shaped multimode fiber sensor

The U-shaped multimode fiber structure is proposed to measure the refractive index of liquid. In the previous work, the U-shaped structure by single-mode fiber has been widely investigated. However, the large bending loss restricted its practical applications, especially for the reflection-type fiber probe. To reduce the bending losses, the multimode fiber is used as the bending section of the fiber sensor in this study. The structures with different bending radiuses are fabricated to verify this design. Moreover, to simplify the interrogation method, the differential intensity interrogation method is used by cascading two fiber Bragg gratings after the U-shaped fiber structure. The low bending loss of the proposed structure is helpful to measure the reflected light power by fiber Bragg gratings. The influence of incident light power fluctuation was largely suppressed by this differential method. In addition, the sensitivity is also increased by a factor of 2 compared with the intensity interrogation method using one-cascaded fiber Bragg grating. The experimental results show that the refractive index sensitivities are ?115.09?dB/RIU in the refractive index range of 1.3405–1.3874 and ?260.24?dB/RIU in the refractive index range of 1.3874–1.4223, respectively.     

Simultaneous measurement of refractive index and temperature by integrating an external Fabry-Perot cavity with a fiber Bragg grating

A fiber sensor for simultaneous measurements of refractive index and temperature based on the integration of a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) with an external Fabry-Perot (F-P) cavity is presented. The fringe contrast of the interference spectrum generated by the F-P cavity is used to determine the external refractive index, while the wavelength shift of the FBG is used to measure temperature. The result showed that the refractive index and temperature sensitivity for the integrated sensor is 8.1 × 10(-6) and 0.01006 nm/°C, respectively.     

纤芯失配的光纤Mach-Zehnder折射率传感器

基于Mach-Zehnder干涉仪原理,利用光纤错位熔接技术设计并制作了一种单模光纤-多模光纤-单模光纤-错位熔接点-单模光纤结构的液体折射率传感器。传感器中的多模光纤和错位连接部分充当光耦合器;多模光纤在后面的单模光纤的纤芯和包层中激发出纤芯模和包层模,不同的模式有不同的模式折射率,经中间单模光纤传输到错位熔接点处时,不同模式光之间将产生光程差,经错位熔接点耦合成为导出光纤的纤芯模从而产生干涉。对该传感器输出的干涉光谱中干涉谷功率随外界溶液折射率变化的规律进行了理论分析和实验研究。结果表明：溶液折射率变化为1.358 9~1.392 2时,干涉谱中1 530 nm附近的干涉谷光功率与溶液折射率呈单调递增关系,可用于折射率的测量;折射率变化为1.372 0~1.392 2时,传感器响应曲线具有很好的线性度,线性拟合系数为0.998,对应的灵敏度为252.06 dB/RIU。该传感器制作简单、结构紧凑、成本低、灵敏度高,可用于生物医学领域液体折射率的实时测量。     

光纤闭环液位控制系统

研制一种利用光纤的闭环液位控制系统,光纤探针是由两根多模光纤焊接在一起形成的,光纤探针边界处的光线对周围介质的折射率敏感,系统使用两个光纤探针将液位控制在相应的范围内,设计的液位控制系统很好地解决了液滴效应带来的延迟问题。     

High sensitivity all-fiber Sagnac interferometer temperature sensor using a selective ethanol-filled photonic crystal fiber

An all-fiber Sagnac temperature sensor based on 3?dB tapered coupling and ethanol selective-filled photonic crystal fiber was demonstrated theoretically and experimentally. The ethanol selectivity-filled photonic crystal fiber has noncircular symmetry and thus exhibits birefringence. The ethanol selective-filled photonic crystal fiber, acting as the sensing element, was inserted in a Sagnac loop interferometer to measure temperature. The output spectra of Sagnac interferometer applied different temperatures were measured and analyzed. Experimental results have shown the temperature sensitivity of the Sagnac interferometer is 1.65?nm/°C in the range of 25–33°C.     

AN OPTICAL FIBER TEMPERATURE SENSOR BASED ON AN ETHANOL FILLED FABRY-PEROT CAVITY

Optical fiber Fabry-Perot interferometers have been widely used as sensors. A novel anhydrous ethanol-filled optical fiber Fabry-Perot temperature sensor was reported in this article. Based on the characteristics of the temperature-controlling refractive index, the ethanol may serve as a sensitive medium for a sensor. According to the experimental results, the refractive index of the ethanol was changed by approximately 0.02617 when the temperature increased from 16°C to 74°C. A cavity length of 94 μm was used to demonstrate the feasibility of this sensor. The resonance wavelength of the sensor shifted about ?0.42 nm/°C. The novel optical fiber Fabry-Perot temperature sensor was simple, compact, sensitive, and immune to electromagnetic interferences.     

保偏光纤转轴熔接Sagnac干涉环的光学游标效应及温度传感器

为了实现高灵敏度的温度传感,通过在基于保偏光纤Sagnac干涉仪的Sagnac环内增加一段保偏光纤,控制两段保偏光纤快轴熔接角度接近45°,设计并制造了保偏光纤转轴熔接Sagnac干涉环结构。在理论上通过Jones矩阵推导了保偏光纤转轴熔接Sagnac干涉环的干涉谱公式,基于仿真分析研究了主要参数对保偏光纤转轴熔接Sagnac干涉环输出特性的影响。仿真结果表明,保偏光纤转轴熔接Sagnac干涉环实现了光学游标效应,两段保偏光纤的平均长度、两段保偏光纤的长度差分别影响保偏光纤转轴熔接Sagnac干涉环输出干涉谱的波长间隔和包络周期;在实验中,将保偏光纤转轴熔接Sagnac干涉环应用在光纤温度传感器中。实验结果表明,在2cm的感温区域,保偏光纤转轴熔接Sagnac干涉环温度传感器的灵敏度就达到了-2.44nm/℃,是普通Sagnac干涉环温度传感器(-0.163nm/℃)的14.97倍。     

镀金属膜长周期光纤光栅的传感特性

本文基于耦合模理论, 建立了严格的四层金属膜理论模型, 探讨了镀金属膜长周期光纤光栅(Long-period fiber grating, LPFG)的温度、 应变及折射率特性, 以及镀膜参数对镀金属膜长周期光纤光栅光谱特性的影响.仿真结果表明, 长周期光纤光栅表面最优的金属膜厚度将引起表现等离子共振(Surface-plasmon resonance, SPR)特性, 这一特性将使得LPFG 对稳定及折射率都有较高的敏感性, 而对应变影响较小. 理论分析表明, 银膜厚度在0.8-1.2 nm 范围内时, 折射率敏感度达到最大值为42.402 6, 敏感度增加4.5%. 仿真结果为镀膜长周期光纤光栅的设计及参数优化提供了理论指导.     

Research on the fiber Bragg grating sensor for the shock stress measurement

A fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor with an unbalanced Mach-Zehnder fiber interferometer for the shock stress measurement is proposed and demonstrated. An analysis relationship between the shock stress and the central reflection wavelength shift of the FBG is firstly derived. In this sensor, the optical path difference of the unbalanced Mach-Zehnder fiber interferometer is ~3.1 mm and the length of the FBG is 2 mm. An arctangent function reduction method, which can avoid sine function's insensitive zone where the shock stress measurement has a reduced accuracy, is presented. A shock stress measurement of water driven by one stage gun (up to 1.4 GPa), with good theoretical accuracy (~10%), is launched.     

Cost effective refractive index sensor based on optical fiber micro cavities produced by the catastrophic fuse effect

We propose a refractive index optical fiber sensor based on the micro cavities generated through the fiber catastrophic fuse effect. This sensor was tested in the measurement of solutions with refractive indices ranging from 1.3320 to 1.4280. The linear dependence of the reflection spectra modulation period as function of the surrounding environment refractive index leads to a resolution of 3 × 10⁻⁴ RIU. The proposed sensor is an innovative solution based on optical fiber damaged by the fuse effect, resulting in a cost effective solution.     

光纤傅里叶变换光谱术在光纤光栅传感解调中的应用

介绍了光纤Mach-Zehnder干涉仪的基本原理和光纤傅里叶变换光谱仪(FFTS)的结构;基于光纤Mach-Zehnder干涉仪,采用傅里叶变换光谱算法对光纤Bragg光栅传感器的波长进行了解调。宽带光源发出的光经过光纤耦合器进入光纤Bragg光栅,其反射光由耦合器返回进入到FFTS中进行测量,FFTS的最高光谱分辨率达到0.05 cm-1,即在近红外1 550 nm波长处分辨率为0.012 nm。分别对光纤Bragg光栅的应变特性和温度特性进行了测量。测量显示:光纤Bragg光栅的应变灵敏度为0.833 pm/με,温度灵敏度为19.78 pm/℃。得到的结果表明FFTS系统具有高分辨率、大测量范围的特点,可满足光纤Bragg光栅传感器波长解调的需求。     

电纺氧化硅凝胶亚微米光波导

利用静电纺丝技术制备了有机硅微纳凝胶光纤.在酸性条件下对正硅酸乙酯(TEOS)和正辛基三乙氧基硅烷(Octyl-triEOS)进行水解缩聚,同时掺杂氧气敏感荧光指示剂tris(4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline) ruthenium( Ⅱ) chloride[Ru(dpp)3Cl2],反应形成黏稠的溶胶溶液.然后,在10 kV高压静电场作用下对溶胶进行静电纺丝,获得直径为900 nm的凝胶纤维,并对拉锥后的多模光纤与电纺制备的微纳光波导纤维进行倏逝场光耦合,同时检测该纤维的氧气传感特性.实验结果表明:电纺制备的纤维具有光滑的表面结构,直径均匀,能够与拉锥后的光纤进行强烈的倏逝场耦合,同时激发纤维内部荧光指示剂,发射595 nm荧光.该纤维具有明显的氧气敏感性,在氧气浓度为0％～100％(体积比)时,荧光淬灭程度I0/I与氧气浓度呈线性关系,响应时间低于100 ms.