Simultaneous measurement of curvature and temperature based on PCF-based interferometer and fiber Bragg grating

A sensor head consisting of a photonic crystal fiber (PCF)-based Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) and a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated for simultaneous measurement of curvature and temperature. The MZI fabricated by splicing a short length of PCF between two single-mode fibers with the air-hole structure that completely collapsed near the splicing points, is sensitive to fiber bending and surrounding temperature, while the FBG is only sensitive to the later. Simultaneous measurement of curvature and temperature is therefore obtained. Sensitivities of 4.06 nm/m^− 1 and 6.30 pm/°C are achieved experimentally for curvature and temperature, respectively. And the corresponding resolutions are 5.2 × 10^− 4 m^− 1 and 1.25 °C for curvature and temperature, respectively, based on the wavelength measurement resolution of 10 pm.     

Strain and temperature discrimination technique by use of A FBG written in erbium doped fiber

We propose and demonstrate strain and temperature discrimination technique using a single fiber Bragg grating (FBG) written in the core of an erbium doped fiber. We observed that amplified spontaneous emission power varying linearly from the erbium doped fiber with temperature which determines temperature changes and strain is estimated by subtracting the wavelength shift due to temperature change, from the measured shift corresponding to the dip in the transmission spectrum of the FBG. A simple and compact FBG sensor is presented with improved rms errors of 21.2 μ? and 1 °C over ranges of 0–800 μ? and 40–95 °C, respectively. The sensor is shown to have strain and temperature sensitivity of 0.8 pm/μ? and 12 pm/°C.     

In-fiber Mach–Zehnder interferometer based on multi-mode fiber and up-taper for curvature sensing

A new type of curvature sensor comprises a stub of multi-mode fiber and an up-taper is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. The whole fabrication process is quite simple and the sensor head is cost effective. Measurement results show that it has a maximum curvature sensitivity of −61.877 nm/m⁻¹ at 1.1718 m⁻¹ (the highest value of reported papers among in-fiber Mach–Zehnder interferometers) and −9.2115 nm/m⁻¹ from 0.865 m⁻¹ to 1.1172 m⁻¹. Temperature sensitivity of 89.01 pm/°C within the range of 20–80 °C has also been achieved, which implies the possibility for measurement of temperature.     

Determination of thermo-optic coefficient in liquids with fiber Bragg grating refractometer

In this work the thermo-optic coefficients of hydrocarbon samples have been determined using etched fiber Bragg grating (FBG), where the effective refractive index (RI) of the fundamental mode becomes dependent on the surrounding refractive index. The technique is based on the cross-sensitivity that the device presents to temperature and refractive index. The thermal response of FBG is characterized for samples with different refractive indices. The inherent temperature effects are distinguished from the RI, due to induced effects changes in the refractive index caused by the thermo-optic effect. For comparison purposes, literature data has been used to work with such parameters for water. The parameter obtained for ethanol (−3.99 ± 0.20) × 10⁻⁴ °C⁻¹ at 1550 nm is in close proximity with the literature data, −4 × 10⁻⁴ °C⁻¹, in the visible range.     

光纤光栅弹簧管压力传感器的压力和温度特性

本文利用弹簧管对于压力的机械放大作用,将弹簧管与光纤光栅悬臂梁调谐技术相结合,研制了一种新颖的光纤光栅弹簧管压力传感器,大大提高了光纤布喇格光栅对压力测量的灵敏度,压力灵敏度系数可达-1.79×10^-4/MPa,比裸光栅提高了两个数量级,在0～12MPa的压力范围内,光纤布喇格光栅中心反射波长的改变与压力成良好的线性关系.同时由于悬臂梁热膨胀效应的影响,光纤光栅的温度灵敏度提高为裸光栅的7倍.     

Addressing fiber Bragg grating sensors with wavelength-swept pulse fiber laser and analog electrical switch

A pulse train with a wavelength dependent time sequence is generated in a fiber laser configuration, which contains a cascaded wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) fiber Bragg grating (FBG) array and a tunable F-P filter. By distributing pulses to corresponding channels with a 1 × N analog electrical switch, a novel FBG sensors interrogation technique with advantages of high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and high interrogation speed is experimentally demonstrated. Then, a FBG sensing system based on this interrogation technique and the mature unbalanced scanning Michelson interferometer (USMI) demodulation technique is realized. The system has shown a sensitivity of 1.610°/με, for the 1555 nm FBG, which agrees well with the theoretical value of 1.674°/με.     

Highly sensitive bend sensor based on Mach-Zehnder interferometer using photonic crystal fiber

Optical fiber bend sensor with photonic crystal fiber (PCF) based Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) is demonstrated experimentally. The results show that the PCF-based MZI is sensitive to bending with a sensitivity of 3.046 nm/m⁻¹ and is independent on temperature with a sensitivity of 0.0019 nm/°C, making it the best candidate for temperature insensitive bend sensors. To that end, another kind of bend sensor with higher sensitivity of 5.129 nm/m⁻¹ is proposed, which is constructed by combining an LPFG and an MZI with zero offset at the second splice mentioned above.     

Temperature-independent curvature sensor based on tapered photonic crystal fiber interferometer

A temperature-independent highly-sensitive curvature sensor by using a tapered-photonic crystal fiber (PCF)-based Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. It is fabricated by sandwiching a tapered-PCF between two standard single mode fibers (SMFs) with the air holes of the PCF in the fusion splicing region being fully collapsed. The tapering of PCF is found to enhance the sensitivity significantly. Large curvature sensitivities of 2.81 dB/m⁻¹ and 8.35 dB/m⁻¹ are achieved in the measurement ranges of 0.36-0.87 m⁻¹ and 0.87-1.34 m⁻¹, respectively, with the resolution of 0.0012 m⁻¹ being guaranteed. The proposed sensor also shows negligible temperature sensitivity less than 0.006 dB/°C.     

Ultrahigh-channel-count fiber Bragg grating based on the triple sampling method

A triple sampling method to have enabled excellent channel uniformity and high in-band energy efficiency is firstly proposed for the design of an ultrahigh-channel-count fiber Bragg grating (FBG), which is based on the simultaneous utilization of two amplitude-assisted phase sampling (AAPS) functions and a phase-only sampling (POS) function. As an example, one linearly chirped FBG with consecutive 1215 channels enabling to cover all fiber telecom bands (O + E + S + C + L + U) is numerically demonstrated, which has a length of 9 cm, a dispersion of − 1360 ps/nm, and a channel spacing of 50 GHz. The maximum index-change required for 10 dB strength of the FBG is less than 6 × 10^− 3.     

Gain clamped L-band EDFA with forward–backward pumping scheme using fiber Bragg grating

The paper proposes a novel two stage L-band erbium doped fiber amplifier with forward–backward pumping scheme for transmission of 32 wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) channels. It is gain clamped with an in-line fiber Bragg grating (FBG) to provide flat gain over 45 nm by restricting and reutilizing amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). We demonstrate that it provides an efficient small signal gain with minimum noise figure of over 20 dB and 5.5 dB, respectively, in the L-band region (1565–1610 nm) by comparing with its forward and backward pumped counterparts with fixed Er³⁺ fiber length of 20 m for −30 dBm/channel input power. We also obtain the gain and noise figure dependence as a function of each of the Er³⁺ fiber lengths, pump power (both 1480 and 980 nm), and temperature. Hence a 10 nm region (1580–1590 nm) has been acknowledged where temperature variations become constricted for 30 °C variations (15–45 °C).     

Design of fiber Bragg grating-based Fabry–Perot sensor for simultaneous measurement of humidity and temperature

A new sensor for simultaneous measurement of humidity and temperature is proposed. The sensor consists of Fabry–Perot cavity formed by two identical uniform fiber Bragg gratings. To make the cavity serves as humidity sensor, moisture sensitive polymer, which is polyimide, is coated on the FBG and on the cavity with different thickness. When the sensor is exposed to the relative humidity change, the polyimide will expand and stretch the fiber and induces strain on the FBG and on the cavity. The induced strain alters the grating period, cavity length and effective refractive index of fiber. The simulation results show that the humidity sensitivity and thermal sensitivity are 1.92 pm/%RH and 8.87 pm/°C, respectively, for polyimide coating thickness of 10 μm on the FBG and 15 μm on the cavity.     

Integration of miniature Fabry-Perot fiber optic sensor with FBG for the measurement of temperature and strain

A sensor has been fabricated by the integration of a fiber Bragg gating sensor (FBGs) with a fiber Fabry-Perot (F-P) sensor fabricated by etching method. In the integrated sensor, the FBG was used to measure temperature, while the fiber Fabry-Perot interferometer sensor (FFPIs) was used for strain measurement. Wavelength decoding for FBG and peak tracking for FFPI was employed for demodulation, respectively. The result showed that the temperature and strain sensitivity for the integrated sensor is ~ 2.7 pm/μεand ~ 9.3 pm/°C, respectively.     

Simultaneous measurement of refractive index and temperature using dual-period grapefruit microstructured fiber grating

By cascading the long period fiber grating (LPFG) and fiber Bragg grating (FBG) in grapefruit microstructured fiber, a novel dual-period fiber grating sensor is proposed. The refractive index and temperature are measured simultaneously by using the different sensitivity of FBG and LPFG. The relationship between dual-period fiber grating transmission spectrum and refractive index, resonant wavelengths and temperature are analyzed theoretically, respectively. The simulation results show that the accuracy of the sensor in measuring refractive index and temperature is estimated to be 2319.6 nm/RIU in a range from 1.33 to 1.36 and 0.017 nm/°C from 0 °C to 100 °C, respectively. Thus, the sensor has high refractive index sensitivity, and can provide the theoretical foundation for the optical fiber biosensor.     

The spectral sensitivity of long period gratings fabricated in elliptical core D-shaped optical fibre

Long period gratings (LPGs) were written into a D-shaped optical fibre that has an elliptical core with a W-shaped refractive index profile and the first detailed investigation of such LPGs is presented. The LPGs’ attenuation bands were found to be sensitive to the polarisation of the interrogating light with a spectral separation of about 15 nm between the two orthogonal polarisation states. A finite element method was successfully used to model many of the behavioural features of the LPGs. In addition, two spectrally overlapping attenuation bands corresponding to orthogonal polarisation states were observed; modelling successfully reproduced this spectral feature. The spectral sensitivity of both orthogonal states was experimentally measured with respect to temperature and bending. These LPG devices produced blue and red wavelength shifts depending upon the orientation of the bend with measured maximum sensitivities of −3.56 and +6.51 nm m, suggesting that this type of fibre LPG may be useful as a shape/bend orientation sensor with reduced errors associated with polarisation dependence. The use of neighbouring bands to discriminate between temperature and bending was also demonstrated, leading to an overall curvature error of ±0.14 m⁻¹ and an overall temperature error of ±0.3 °C with a maximum polarisation dependence error of ±8 × 10⁻² m⁻¹ for curvature and ±5 × 10⁻² °C for temperature.     

Wavelength-encoded fiber-optic temperature sensor with ultra-high sensitivity

We present in this paper a wavelength-encoded fiber-optic temperature sensor with ultra-high sensitivity. The sensor consists of a segment of multimode fiber (MMF) with a polymer cladding spliced between two single mode fibers, forming a multimode fiber interferometer. For a temperature sensor with a 55 mm long MMF and a 45 mm long polymer cladding, a temperature sensitivity of −3.195 nm/°C has been achieved over a temperature range of 10 °C which is mainly limited by the spectral range of the light source used in the experiments. It has been found that the high temperature sensitivity is mainly attributed to the high thermo-optic coefficient of the polymer cladding. Other advantages of the temperature sensor reported here include its extremely simple structure and fabrication process, and hence a very low cost.     

Curvature sensor based on a pressure-induced birefringence single mode fiber loop mirror

An optical fiber curvature sensor based on a pressure-induced birefringence singlemode fiber loop mirror is presented. The birefringer SMF is made by applying a transverse force against a short length of singlemode fiber. The length of the sensing element for the curvature sensing is about 150 mm. The sensitivity of the curvature measurement experimentally is 0.0263 m⁻¹/pm. And the temperature effect of the proposed sensor is also analyzed. Comparing with the sensor of photonic crystal fiber, it is more convenient and simply.     

A lasing wavelength stabilized simultaneous multipoint acoustic sensing system using pressure-coupled fiber Bragg gratings

A fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor head, using a pressure coupling mechanism, was designed for broadband frequency response and structural strain-free characteristic. The pressure-coupled sensor heads were connected to a simultaneous multipoint acoustic sensing system based on a tunable laser. An intelligent lasing wavelength stabilization algorithm capable of identifying the direction of spectrum movement, the wavelength shifting speed, and a fiber bending event was developed so that the simultaneous multipoint acoustic sensing system could be used in environments with rapid temperature variations. The lasing wavelength feedback control algorithm updated the lasing wavelength into the steep slope of the FBG spectrum even under conditions of rapid temperature change. The averaging lasing wavelength updating time was only 21 s because the system can decide a minimal size in scan window by finding the FBG spectrum shifting speed and direction in real time. The system was able to update the lasing wavelength which missed the steep slope of the FBG spectrum under maximum temperature variation rates 0.3014 and −0.3246 °C/s. The proposed system detected simultaneous impact waves at multiple points under conditions of rapid temperature change and change in dynamic strain.     

Elimination of environmental noise in interferometric wavelength shift demodulation for dynamic fiber Bragg grating sensor array

We present a novel reference compensation method for eliminating environmental noise in interferometric wavelength shift demodulation for dynamic fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors. By employing a shielded wavelength-division-multiplexed reference FBG in the system, the environmental noise is measured from the reference channel, and then subtracted from the demodulation result of each sensor channel. An approximate 40 dB reduction of the environmental noise has been experimentally achieved over a frequency range from 20 Hz to 2 kHz. This method is also suitable for the elimination of broadband environmental noise. The corresponding FBG sensor array system proposed in this paper has shown a wavelength resolution of .     

Fiber grating sensors for high-temperature measurement

Two fiber grating sensors for high-temperature measurements are proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The interrogation technologies of the sensor systems are all simple, low cost but effective. In the first sensor system, the sensor head is comprised of one fiber Bragg grating (FBG) and two metal rods. The lengths of the rods are different from each other. The coefficients of thermal expansion of the rods are also different from each other. The FBG will be strained by the sensor head when the temperature to be measured changes. The temperature is measured based on the wavelength-shifts of the FBG induced by the strain. In the second sensor system, a long-period fiber grating (LPG) is used as the high-temperature sensor head. The LPG is very-high-temperature stable CO₂-laser-induced grating and has a linear function of wavelength–temperature in the range of 0–800 °C. A dynamic range of 0–800 °C and a resolution of 1 °C have been obtained by either the first or the second sensor system. The experimental results agree with theoretical analyses.