Theoretical model of a planar waveguide refractive index sensor assisted by a corrugated long period metal grating

A theoretical model of a novel planar integrated refractive index sensor based on surface plasmon-polariton (SPP) excitation with a corrugated metal long period grating (LPG) is presented and comprehensively investigated. The main principle of the operation this device is based on co-directional energy transfer by means of a corrugated metal LPG between a p-polarized guided mode propagating in a waveguide layer and the SPP propagating a metal layer separated from the waveguide layer by a buffer. The corrugated LPG is engraved in the metal layer in contact with the sensed medium. The power transmitted through the LPG in the guided mode serves as an input signal for an interrogation unit. This device is free from any moving parts and can be simply integrated into any planar waveguide system. Our sensor simulations are based on the local-normal-mode transfer matrix method and performed in telecom wavelength range.     

Highly efficient lens couplers for laser-diodes based on long period grating in special graded-index fiber

A theoretical scheme of a new device consisting of a lensed fiber and a long period grating (LPG) imprinted in a special single mode gradient-index fiber (SSMGIF) is presented. The SSMGIF consists of the single mode uniform core and the graded-index cladding. The performance of the proposed device is based on specific properties of SSMGIF. For high efficiency coupling between number of cladding modes and co-propagating core mode in this special type of the fiber we can use a number of weak LPGs with the same amplitudes of the refractive index modulation and with almost the same lengths. This scheme provides higher coupling efficiency, relaxed longitudinal alignment tolerance, and smaller device size, than an identical scheme with the LPG imprinted in a step-index (SI) fiber. Two different types of fiber lenses (hemispherical and hyperbolic) are presented for comparison.     

Long period grating cascaded to photonic crystal fiber modal interferometer for simultaneous measurement of temperature and refractive index

We propose and demonstrate a novel and simple dual-parameter measurement scheme based on a cascaded optical fiber device of long-period grating (LPG) and photonic crystal fiber (PCF) modal interferometer. The temperature and refractive index (RI) can be measured simultaneously by monitoring the spectral characteristics of the device. The implemented sensor shows distinctive spectral sensitivities of -30.82 nm/RIU (refractive index unit) and 47.4 pm/°C by the LPG, and 171.96 nm/RIU and 10.4 pm/°C by the PCF modal interferometer. The simultaneous measurement of the temperature and external RI is experimentally demonstrated by the sensor. The temperature shift and RI shift calculated by the sensor matrix agree well with the actual temperature and RI change in the experiment.     

Investigations on Pd:SnO2/porous silicon structures for sensing LPG and NO2 gas

P-type porous silicon (PS) structure has been prepared by anodic electrochemical etching process under optimized conditions. Photoluminescence studies of the PS structure show emission at longer wavelengths (red) for the excitation at 365 nm. Scanning electron microscope investigations of the PS surface confirm the formation of uniform porous structure, and the pore diameter have been estimated as 25 μm. Pd:SnO₂/PS/p-Si heterojunction with top gold ohmic contact developed by conventional methods has been used as the sensor device. Sensing properties of the device towards liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and NO₂ gas have been investigated in an indigenously developed sensor test rig. The response and recovery characteristics of the sensor device at different operating temperatures show short response time for LPG. From the studies, maximum sensitivity and optimum operating temperature of the device towards LPG and NO₂ gas sensing has been estimated as 69% at 180 °C and 52% at 220 °C, respectively. The developed sensor device shows a short response time of 25 and 57 s for sensing LPG and NO₂ gases, respectively. Paper presented at the Third International Conference on Ionic Devices (ICID 2006), Chennai, Tamilnadu, India, Dec. 7–9, 2006.     

Optimization of a long-period grating-based Mach-Zehnder interferometer for temperature measurement

An approach to optimize the design of the long-period grating pair as a temperature sensor device is presented, implemented by using a long-period grating (LPG) pair with a small separation (of around 2 mm) and scaling down their physical length by a factor greater than 2. The technique allows the interferometer formed not only to measure temperature variations over distances as small as the overall length of the grating pair (18 mm) but also to reduce the cladding losses between the LPGs forming the pair. This approach enhances the sharpness of the interference fringes (IFs) and the pits (Pts) in the transmission spectrum and, as a result, a high resolution sensor is obtained. The LPG pair is fabricated in the appropriate photosensitive single mode/core fibres, without being restricted to the use of dual core or other special fibres, thus exploiting the sensitivities of various fibres and reducing the overall system cost. In this work, the effectiveness of this technique is demonstrated by fabricating a small-scale LPG pair in a boron-germanium co-doped single mode fibre, with particular attention being paid to the higher order cladding modes. The sensitivity of the device thus created is 0.31 nm/°C with a root-mean-square (rms) deviation of 0.28 nm in the wavelength measurement, which corresponds to a temperature variation of approximately 0.9 °C. This was achieved while using a relatively low-resolution (0.6 nm) Optical Spectrum Analyzer to detect the wavelength changes of the device and was further improved to 0.7 °C when using an OSA with a resolution of 0.1 nm.     

长周期光纤光栅和双锥形光纤间的倏逝波耦合作用

对长周期光纤光栅和双锥形光纤之间的倏逝波耦合作用进行了研究。理论分析和实验研究表明,由于锥形光纤和长周期光纤光栅物理边界外倏逝波之间的交叠,长周期光纤光栅产生的包层模,可以耦合到锥形光纤的包层模并从锥形光纤的纤芯输出。要获得高的耦合效率,应满足模式匹配的条件,同时要尽量减小两光纤之间的距离。耦合特性还与长周期光栅和双锥形光纤的相对位置有关,为获得高的耦合效率,耦合区应位于长周期光栅区的后面。这种倏逝波耦合作用,为监测实际应用系统中长周期光纤光栅的特性提供了一种新方法;为利用锥形光纤和长周期光纤光栅开发新型光纤器件,提供了一种可能的方案。     

液化石油气中二甲醚含量快速测定方法研究

二甲醚(DME)掺入液化石油气(LPG)中能加速储气罐橡胶密封圈的老化,存在严重安全隐患,直接危害消费者安全和利益,国家明令规定禁止向LPG中掺入二甲醚等化学品作为液化气商品出售,因此实现LPG中DME含量的快速分析极其重要。提出一种快速测定LPG中DME含量的新方法,解决了液化气成分快速测量技术难题。实验设计和制造了一套精确配制DME液化气溶液的装置和一套基于近红外光谱技术快速测定LPG的分析系统。该分析系统耐压3.5 MPa,可方便与高压钢瓶连接,实现了液化气直接快速测量。收集了市场上LPG-1(胺前液化气),LPG-2(焦化液化气),LPG-3(脱硫醇后液化气)LPG-4(沧炼催化液化气)共四种液化石油气,采集其近红外光谱作为背景子空间,采用称重法配制DME浓度范围1.0%～45.0%。采用斜投影算法从LPG溶液近红外光谱中提取出不同浓度LPG溶液中DME纯信号,使用DME纯信号强度I与浓度c建立标准曲线,其线性相关系数为0.999 4。外部验证结果表明,方法相对误差小于2.0%。该方法具有操作简单,快速、无需建模等优点。     

级联长周期光栅光谱特性

利用传输矩阵法分析了级联长周期光栅的光谱特性,讨论了级联处光纤的长度、位置以及包层模损耗系数对级联长周期光栅光谱的影响,并对级联长周期光栅和相移长周期光栅的光谱进行了比较。结果表明两者光谱存级联光纤长度较小或级联位置靠近光栅两端时具有较强的一致性,而在级联处光纤较长并且级联位置在中间时,两者表现出截然不同的光谱特性;在不考虑其他损耗的情况下,如果只改变级联处光纤长度,级联长周期光栅总量守恒;此外,当级联长周期光栅在级联处光纤包层模损耗系数较大时,级联长周期光栅的光谱等效于两个长周期光栅光谱的非相干叠加,从而为长周期光栅增益均衡器的优化设计和制作提供了一个简便有效的方法。     

DME/LPG混合燃料HCCI燃烧模拟

根据碳氢燃料化学反应系统具有层次结构的特性,本文通过分析二甲醚(DME)与液化石油气(LPG)的详细化学反应机理,构建了反映DME／LPG混合燃料均质压燃(HCCI)燃烧的详细化学反应机理．采用该机理应用单区燃烧模型对DME／LPG混合燃料HCCI燃烧的化学反应动力学过程进行了数值计算．计算结果与试验结果对比表明,所构建的DME／LPG混合燃料氧化的详细化学反应机理能够准确预测DME／LPG混合燃料的两阶段放热特性,对低温和高温着火始点的预测很好;但高温反应过程预测欠佳,高温反应机理需要改进．     

High sensitivity long-period grating-based temperature monitoring using a wide wavelength range to 2.2 μm

Temperature effects on the various cladding modes of a long-period grating (LPG) fabricated in B-Ge co-doped fibre have been investigated to create a high sensitivity measurement device. The temperature sensitivities of the attenuation bands of the LPG over the wavelength region 1.2-2.2 μm, for a grating with a 330 μm period, were obtained by monitoring the wavelength shift of each attenuation band, with a temperature increment of 20 °C, over the range from 23 °C to 140 °C. The attenuation band appearing over the 1.8-2.0 μm wavelength range has shown a nearly five times higher temperature sensitivity than that of lower order modes, and thus it shows significant promise for fibre optic temperature sensor applications.     

基于光纤布拉格光栅与长周期光栅并联的集成光学传感器

为了提高光纤传感器的性能和进一步缩小传感器的尺寸,通过实验制备出一种基于光纤布拉格光栅(FBG)与长周期光栅(LPG)并联的新型集成光学传感器。该传感器中的FBG和LPG是利用飞秒激光直写技术直接在普通单模光纤中刻写的。FBG和LPG是并联关系,因此很大程度地缩小了传感器的长度。外界的温度和折射率的变化会引起FBG和LPG的谐振峰波长位置发生变化,据此对该集成传感器进行温度和折射率测量。实验结果表明:FBG谐振峰对折射率和温度的灵敏度分别为0 nm/RIU和12.98 pm/℃,而LPG在1 555 nm附近谐振峰对折射率和温度的灵敏度为196.46 nm/RIU和10.93 pm/℃。因此,根据双参数传感矩阵,该传感器可以对温度和外界折射率进行同时传感。     

Theory and practice of long-period gratings: when a loss becomes a gain

Losses of cladding modes are part of the mechanism of operation of a long-period grating (LPG) when it is used as an optical filter. We present a LPG computer simulation that accounts for these losses. On the basis of this simulation, we show that losses result in qualitatively different LPG spectral behavior. There is an optimal loss value that provides sidelobe-free, 100% power transfer from the core to the cladding mode for a uniform LPG. We obtained a simple equation that relates this optimum lose value to the LPG length and the cross-coupling coefficient. Based on the results, we propose new approaches to LPG design in a fiber as well as in waveguide platforms for fiber-optic communication and sensor applications. A design of a LPG reconfigurable filter is suggested.     

Highly sensitive bend sensor with hybrid long-period and tilted fiber Bragg grating

We demonstrate a new type of fiber optic bend sensor with a hybrid structure made up of a long period grating (LPG) and a tilted fiber Bragg grating (TFBG). The sensing mechanism is based on the spectrum of power transfers between the core and cladding modes from a TFBG located downstream from a LPG. We show that the curvature of a beam can be determined by the reflected power difference between the core mode and the recoupled cladding modes. We further provide design rules for the LPG and TFBG to optimize and linearize the sensor response. In addition, the temperature cross-sensitivities of this configuration are also investigated for two different types of fiber.     

Numerical analysis of plasmon polarition refractive index fiber sensors with hollow core and a long period grating

The main principle of this design is based on the efficient energy transfer between the waveguide mode (WM) and the co-directional SPP provided by a properly designed fiber long period grating (LPG). This LPG is imprinted into a waveguide fiber layer of a specially designed hollow core optical fiber. The simulations are based on the finite element method (FEM) algorithm in electromagnetics and coupled mode theory for gratings. Compared to the previous proposed structure using a fiber Bragg grating (FBG), this novel kind of sensor can greatly enhance the refractive index sensitivity, e.g., from 5.93 nm/RIU (with FBG) to 817 nm/RIU (with LPG) at the sensing refractive index of 1.40. The other advantage is that the working conditions can be performed for the well-developed telecom wavelength windows 1500-1600 nm.     

A multi-parameter optical fiber sensor with interrogation and discrimination capabilities

A multi-parameter and multi-function, but low-cost, optical fiber grating sensor with self-interrogation and self-discrimination capabilities is presented theoretically and experimentally. The sensor bases on three fiber Bragg gratings (FBG) and one fiber long period grating (LPG). Strain, vibration, pressure, ordinary temperature (−10 to 100 °C) and high temperature (100–800 °C) can be measured by the sensor. When high temperature (100–800 °C) is measured, the LPG is used as a high temperture sensor head and FBG₁ is used as an interrogation element. Alternatively, when one of the other four measurands is measured, FBG₁ (or FBG₂) is used as a sensor head and LPG is used as an interrogation element. When two of the other four measurands are measured simultaneously, FBG₁ and FBG₂ are used as sensor heads and LPG is used as a shared interrogation element. FBG₃ is used as a reference element to eliminate the errors resulted from light source fluctuation and the cross-sensitivity between measurand and environmental temperature. The measurands can be interrogated according to the signals of the photodiodes (PDs), which are related to the relative wavelength shift of the LPG and the FBGs. Experimental results agree well with theoretical analyses. The interrogation scheme is immune to light source fluctuation and the cross-sensitivity between measurands and enviromental temperature, and also the dynamic range is large.     

Designing optimal long-period fiber gratings with the overlapped Gaussian-apodization method for flattening EDFA gain spectra

A new and effective optimization approach to the inverse design problems of complex long-period fiber grating (LPG) filters was developed in the present study. The proposed synthesis method was based on the overlapped Gaussian-apodization method and the evolutionary optimization algorithm which can efficiently search for optimal solutions and simultaneously take into account various experimental requirements for the fabrication of the designed filters. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, a LPG filter for flattening EDFA gain spectra was designed. Compared to the existing results from discrete layer-peeling (DLP) inverse scattering algorithms, an LPG filter with adaptive grating lengths and much simpler, smoother, and less complicated coupling coefficient profiles for taking the practical fabrication conditions for gain flattening into account, was used in the proposed method. Simulation results confirm that optimal solutions of an LPG filter design are suitable for practical fabrication.     

Interrogation of a long-period grating using a mechanically scannable arrayed waveguide grating and a sampled chirped fiber Bragg grating

A novel technique to interrogate a long-period grating (LPG) using a mechanically scannable arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) is proposed. This technique is implemented based on space-to-wavelength mapping by mechanically scanning the input light beam along the input coupler facet of an AWG. By employing a sampled chirped fiber Bragg grating with multiple peaks as a reference, the central wavelength of the LPG is measured. An interrogation system with a resolution of 10 pm at a speed of 10 Hz is demonstrated. Furthermore, the technique proposed can potentially offer subpicometer resolution at a speed of 500 Hz.     

Optimization of long-period grating inscribed in large mode area photonic crystal fiber for design of bandstop filter

By inscribing long period grating (LPG) in a photonic crystal fiber (PCF), optical filters for communication wavelengths can be fabricated. In this paper, by utilizing coupled-mode theory and enhanced improved vectorial effective index method, a design of bandstop filter based on optimal LPG parameters is presented where the optimized full-width half-maximum (FWHM), the number (N) and total length of gratings of LPGs (L) are determined. As a result, by the determination of optimized LPG parameters with an optimum length of L_opt=6.5 mm and optimum number of grating N_opt=27 inscribed in the PCF, a bandstop optical filter with FWHM=1 nm is designed.     

Dispersion compensation in transmission using uniform long period fiber gratings

It is proposed that the high dispersion at the transmission band edges of uniform long period gratings (LPG) fabricated on relatively high Δ fibers can be used for efficient dispersion compensation. Since the transmission of LPG varies with length of the grating or refractive index modulation, we show that it is possible to tailor the transmission spectrum to obtain high transmission with constant dispersion and negligible delay ripple over a reasonable bandwidth. Since the proposed structure works in transmission it should be suitable for fiber optic communication links.     

Deep-notch, ultracompact long-period grating in a large-mode-area photonic crystal fiber

An extremely short long-period grating (LPG) with strong resonance has been developed in a large-mode-area photonic crystal fiber (PCF) by use of the heat source of a CO2 laser. We believe that such a LPG in pure silica PCF is the first example to be obtained with the point-by-point technique. The fabrication method is simple and repeatable. The resulting LPG has 8 periods, written by a CO2 laser, within a 2.8-mm length of fiber, which yields a deep notch of core-cladding mode coupling of -31.5 dB at the telecommunication wavelength of 1529.2 nm, with a FWHM of approximately 0.7 nm. The principal advantages of this LPG are that it is practical, cost effective, and compact.