An optical fibre sensor for the measurement of pressure

This paper describes the design, construction and testing of a fibre optic pressure sensor based on a reflecting Fabry-Perot etalon. The etalon comprised one fixed mirror and a second mirror designed to flex under the action of the pressure being monitored. A single multimode fibre was used to connect the passive, remote sensor to the transmitter/receiver section, and dual wavelength referencing was used to eliminate the effects of bending-induced attenuation in the fibre.     

Characterisation of a Nd-doped fibre laser incorporating an etalon formed between the fibre facet and dielectric mirror

Lasing on up to 15 simultaneous wavelengths is demonstrated experimentally with the use of an air-spaced etalon formed between the dichroic mirror and the adjacent fibre facet. A maximum measured frequency shift of 25.4 GHz/μm was observed, and there was only an 11% decrease in the output power at the maximum mirror–fibre separation of 400 μm. A theoretical analysis of the etalon effect in relation to the performance of the fibre laser is also included. The simulation includes the dependence of the effective reflectivity of the mirror and spectral peak spacing on the mirror–fibre separation. The experimental results are consistent with the simulation.     

Reducing thermal noise in future gravitational wave detectors by employing Khalili etalons

Reduction of thermal noise in dielectric mirror coatings is a key issue for the sensitivity improvement in the second and third generation interferometric gravitational wave detectors. Replacing an end mirror of the interferometer by an anti-resonant cavity (a so-called Khalili cavity) has been proposed to realize the reduction of the overall thermal noise level. In this article we show that the use of a Khalili etalon, which requires less hardware than a Khalili cavity, yields still a significant reduction of thermal noise. We identify the optimum distribution of coating layers on the front and rear surfaces of the etalon and compare the total noise budget with a conventional mirror. In addition we briefly discuss advantages and disadvantages of the Khalili etalon compared with the Khalili cavity in terms of technical aspects, such as interferometric length control and thermal lensing.     

A fibre-optic thermometric sensor based on the thermo-optic effect of titanium dioxide coatings

An experimental determination of the thermo-optic effect of titanium dioxide is described in which the test element is a thin film deposited onto the end face of an optical fibre. The film acts as an etalon. The reflectivity of titanium dioxide films was measured as a function of temperature experimentally over the range 20 °C to 500 °C, and modelled theoretically to yield a value of the thermo-optic coefficient of − 1.49 × 10⁻⁴ K⁻¹. The use of the data in the design of a thin-film optical fibre temperature sensor is described.     

Line narrowing of a distributed feedback dye laser using external frequency selective feedback

Frequency selective feedback, employing a mirror and etalon, applied to a distributed feedback dye laser has reduced the linewidth of the emitted radiation by a factor of up to twenty. Criteria used for choosing suitable etalons are discussed.     

Dual-wavelength bandwidth-narrowed output of a high-power diode laser using a simple external cavity

Using an external cavity consisting of an etalon and a mirror, dual-wavelength operation of a high-power broad-area multi-stripe diode laser is achieved. The reflection of the etalon is used as the output beam of the system. The free-running bandwidth of the laser diode is about 2.0 nm. At dual-wavelength operation, the bandwidth of each wavelength component is narrowed to about 0.07 nm, while the space between them is 1.65 nm, determined by the FSR of the etalon. We obtain an available dual-wavelength output power of 2.0 W at the drive current of 6.5 A. The power ratio of the components at two different wavelengths can be changed by changing the temperature of the diode laser. To tune the wavelength of the dual-wavelength output, the temperature of the laser diode and the tilt angle of the etalon are changed simultaneously PACS 42.55.Px; 42.60.Fc; 42.60.Da     

Stabilisation of single-longitudinal mode operation in a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser

Detection of the reflected laser beam power from the mode-selecting etalon in a prelase-Q-switched laser provides an indicator of mode-frequency drifts. The detected signal can be used to control a piezo-mounted resonator mirror, thus correcting the drift and providing a means for maintaining single longitudinal mode operation on every shot.     

Ring fibre laser with interferometer based in long period grating for sensing applications

This work presents two distinct configurations based on phase-wavelength conversion using a ring fibre laser with two different long period gratings interferometer topologies. The sensors are interrogated by analysing the wavelength change of the emission laser, which is directly dependent on the interferometer phase change. The first configuration integrates a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, which is based on a pair of long period gratings and is used as sensing head for bending radius and longitudinal strain measurement. The second configuration, comprehends a Michelson interferometer, which is based on a single LPG and a fibre end mirror and is used as a liquid level sensor or as an optical refractometer.     

Optical pulse compression and amplitude noise reduction using a non-linear optical loop mirror including a distributed Gires-Tournois etalon

We propose and analyse numerically a novel dispersion-imbalanced non-linear optical loop mirror (NOLM) scheme allowing simultaneous compression and amplitude noise reduction of chirped ultrashort-pulsed signals. An all-fibre distributed Gires-Tournois etalon (DGTE) made of two uniform fibre Bragg gratings is inserted asymmetrically in the loop, and is used both to dispersion imbalance the NOLM and to compress the pulses. The results show that the output pulses are accompanied by side lobes, which originate from the no-uniformity of the DGTE dispersion spectrum. We analyse the formation of these side lobes and show that, in the case of highly chirped input pulses, side lobes are strongly reduced by the NOLM architecture. In this case, the device operates well even when the signal optical spectrum extends over an entire free spectral range of the DGTE. We believe that this work will be useful for the design of all-optical regeneration schemes for highly chirped data streams in optical transmission systems.     

Single longitudinal mode pulse from a TEA CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> laser by using a three-mirror resonator with a Fabry–Pérot etalon

We present a single longitudinal mode (SLM) TEA CO₂ laser oscillation by using a three-mirror resonator with a Fabry–Pérot etalon. The etalon was inserted in the optical path taken out from the main resonator of the CO₂ laser for protecting the etalon from damage on the surface. A modified numerical model of the three- mirror resonator was investigated for design the laser. SLM pulse from the TEA CO₂ laser was achieved, and the experimentally measure values were found to have good agreement with the numerical model. The maximum pulse energy of reliable SLM emission is obtained in excess of 200 mJ at 9.57 μm. The reliability of producing SLM pulses was higher than 90%, and there was no damage on the etalon PACS  42.55.Lt; 42.60.Fc     

Miniature in-line photonic crystal fiber etalon fabricated by 157 nm laser micromachining

A miniature in-line fiber-optic Fabry-Perot etalon is fabricated on a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) by using 157 nm laser micromachining for the first time to our knowledge. Experimental results show that such a PCF-based etalon has an excellent fringe visibility of up to approximately 26 dB due to the mirror-finish quality of the two cavity surfaces inside the PCF. This etalon can be used as an ideal sensor for precise strain measurement under high temperature of up to 800 degrees C. It can also offer some other outstanding advantages, such as fast and easy fabrication, high reproducibility, capacity of mass production, low cost, low temperature-strain cross-sensitivity, and high signal-to-noise ratio.     

Fibre optic target reflectivity sensor

This paper reports the principle of operation, the design aspects, experimentation and performance of a fibre optic target reflectivity sensor to examine the correlation between the detector output, variation in material type and the reflectivity properties of the materials tested. The device consists of a fibre optic transmitter, a fibre optic probe, target and a photodiode detector. The fibre optic probe consists of two well-polished PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate) fibres cemented together along some distance over the length. The principle of fibre optic lever displacement sensors is applied. Material effects are examined by preparing a variety of samples namely gold coated mirror, copper, brass, aluminium, steel and galvanized iron using the same polishing techniques. It is found that the response of the sensor changes with change of target surface. The results show that the fibre optic probe is capable of discriminating between materials. With the use of commercially available fibre, source and detector, the set-up proves to be simple, highly sensitive, low cost and versatile one, which can be adopted for on-line measurement or inspection of test components.     

一种基于IIR光交错滤波器的设计方法

基于数字信号处理中的IIR理论,提出了一种基于MGTI型interleaver的新颖设计方法,可以简便地得到所求的各组结构参量.通过z变换简化透射方向和反射方向光波电矢量的表达式,分析了零极点位置对整个滤波器的影响,利用IIR中椭圆滤波器的设计方法得到Gires Tournois腔的腔长、臂长差和Gires Tournois腔各镜面的反射率.并给出了利用两个双镜Gires Tournois腔替代两面全反镜所得到的三组不同参量,比较了采用不同Gires Tournois腔所得到的相应的1、3、5、7、9阶interleaver的模拟仿真结果.     

Birefringent fibre-optic pressure sensor

In this paper a birefringent optical fibre sensor is used to measure the external wall pressure of a pressurized resilient tube. In the design presented here, the sensing polarization-maintaining fibre is external to the tube and the interaction alters the polarization state of the guided light which can easily be measured by conventional techniques.     

A simple fibre Fabry-Perot sensor

A simple fibry Fabry-Perot sensor is described in which the uncoated cleaved ends of a length of single mode fibre are employed as the mirror surfaces to produce high visibility cosine squared fringes in the back reflected light. In an accelerometer configuration the device displayed a below resonance sensitivity of ?200 rads/g.     

基于高双折射光子晶体光纤环镜的全光纤平顶梳状滤波器(英文)

A novel all-fibre flat-top comb filter based on a high birefringence photonic crystal fibre loop mirror is proposed and demonstrated. We simulate theoretically its output spectra and experimentally realize a flat-top output with a high extinction ratio. Compared to filters consisting of the conventional Panda polarization maintaining fibre, filters based on a high birefringence photonic crystal fibre loop mirror have better temperature stability. This kind of filter can be expected to be used widely in Wave...     

Reduction of coating thermal noise by using an etalon

Reduction of coating thermal noise is a key issue in precise measurements like a gravitational-wave detector, where each mirror is coated by a few tens of dielectric layers to achieve high reflectivity while the noise level increases with the number of layers. One way to realize the reduction is mechanical separation of the first few layers from the rest. Using an etalon with a few layers on the front and more on the back surface is a way to realize such a system. We perform a noise analysis of an etalon using the Fluctuation-dissipation theorem with probes on both sides.     

A magnetic tuning system for dye lasers

A new device for magnetically displacing the output mirror of a laser resonator and synchronously tilting an etalon in order to obtain single-mode tuning of a dye laser over a tuning range of at least 10 GHz is described. Comparatively large displacements with good linearity of a coil mounted on a membrane and placed inside the strong magnetic field of a ring magnet are obtained for currents in the order of several hundred milliamperes. Together with etalon flats of appropriate thickness and reflection mounted in the resonator of the laser a versatile instrument for application in intra and extra cavity spectroscopy has been developed.     

F-P标准具温度特性对光纤光栅波长解调精度的影响

F-P标准具的特性易受温度影响,温度变化时,其透射峰会发生漂移,将其应用于光纤光栅波长解调时,温度波动会给波长解调精度带来影响。分析了F-P标准具的温度特性对光纤光栅波长解调精度的影响程度,并分别采用温度稳定性为1.5 GHz和3 GHz的F-P标准具进行了稳定性和重复性实验。实验结果表明:光纤光栅传感器的中心波长不同,由F-P标准具的温度特性产生的解调误差也不同;采用2种F-P标准具测得的稳定性误差最大值分别为0.528 pm和0.676 pm,重复性误差最大值分别为1.77 pm和2.01 pm。     

基于高双折射光子晶体光纤环镜的全光纤平顶梳状滤波器

A novel all-fibre flat-top comb filter based on a high birefringence photonic crystal fibre loop mirror is proposed and demonstrated. We simulate theoretically its output spectra and experimentally realize a flat-top output with a high extinction ratio. Compared to filters consisting of the conventional Panda polarization main- taining fibre, filters based on a high birefringence photonic crystal fibre loop mirror have better temperature stability. This kind of filter can be expected to be used widely in Wavelength-division-multiplexing（WDM） systems in the future.