Submicrometer fiber-optic Fabry-Perot interferometer formed by use of the Langmuir-Blodgett technique

The fabrication of an optical cavity at the distal end of an optical fiber has been achieved by Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) deposition of tricosanoic acid. This technique allows nanometer-scale control over the cavity length to a total thickness of ~0.5 microm . The cavity has been shown to act interferometrically and, thus, has potential sensing applications.     

Fiber-optic liquid-level sensor using a long-period grating

A liquid-level sensor based on the refractive-index sensitivity of long-period fiber-optic gratings is proposed and demonstrated. The form of the transmission spectrum of the long-period grating is dependent on the fraction of the length of the long-period grating that is surrounded by the liquid. The sensor shows a large linear range, with sensitivity of 4.8% change in transmission per millimeter, for a long-period grating with a length of 40 mm and a periodicity of 400mu;m .     

Monomode fiber modulators: Frequency and polarization state control

Two experimental fiber components are described that exploit the properties of highly birefringent monomode optical fiber. In the first the generation of a traveling ultrasonic flexure wave on the fiber produces a frequency shift on the input optical signal. In the second a variable axial tension modulates the differential phase retardance between the two guided polarization eigenmodes to produce an arbitrary output polarization state from a linear input state (or vice versa) without loss of optical power.     

Gas cells for tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy employing optical diffusers. Part 1: single and dual pass cells

New designs for gas cells are presented that incorporate transmissive or reflective optical diffusers. These components offer simple alignment and can disrupt the formation of optical etalons. We analyse the performance–limiting effects in these cells of random laser speckle (both objective and subjective speckle), interferometric speckle and self-mixing interference, and show how designs can be optimised. A simple, single pass transmissive gas cell has been studied using wavelength modulation spectroscopy to measure methane at 1651 nm. We have demonstrated a short-term noise equivalent absorbance (NEA, 1σ) of 2×10⁻⁵, but longer term drift of up to 3×10⁻⁴ over 22 hours.     

Monomode fiber modulators: Frequency and polarization state control

Two experimental fiber components are described that exploit the properties of highly birefringent monomode optical fiber. In the first the generation of a traveling ultrasonic flexure wave on the fiber produces a frequency shift on the input optical signal. In the second a variable axial tension modulates the differential phase retardance between the two guided polarization eigenmodes to produce an arbitrary output polarization state from a linear input state (or vice versa) without loss of optical power.     

Gas cells for tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy employing optical diffusers. Part 2: Integrating spheres

We have studied the effects of random laser speckle and self-mixing interference on TDLS based gas measurements made using integrating spheres. Details of the theory and TDLS apparatus are given in Part 1 of this paper and applied here to integrating spheres. Experiments have been performed using two commercial integrating spheres with diameters of 50 mm and 100 mm for the detection of methane at 1651 nm. We have calculated the expected levels of laser speckle related uncertainty, considered to be the fundamental limiting noise, and imaged subjective laser speckle in a sphere using different sized apertures. For wavelength modulation spectroscopy, noise equivalent absorbances (NEAs) of around 5×10^?5 were demonstrated in both cases, corresponding to limits of detection of 1.2 ppm methane and 0.4 ppm methane respectively. Longer-term drift was found to be at an NEA of 4×10^?4. This lies within our broad range of expectations. For a direct spectral scan with no wavelength dither, a limit of detection of 75 ppm or fractional measured power uncertainty of 3×10^?3 corresponded well with our prediction for the objective speckle uncertainty.