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.     

基于拉锥光纤布拉格光栅的法布里-珀罗应变传感器的仿真研究

为解决干涉型光纤应变传感器自由光谱范围较小或干涉条纹精细度较低等问题,提出了一种基于单拉锥光纤布拉格光栅的法布里-珀罗腔的应变传感结构及其改进方案。利用啁啾光纤布拉格光栅不同位置反射不同波长的特性,形成腔长随波长连续变化的法布里-珀罗腔,得到了无穷大的自由光谱范围且谐振谷精细度高。数值计算结果表明,应变传感灵敏度与拉锥光纤的腰区直径和栅区长度正相关。在0～300 με范围内,当腰区直径为光纤直径的3/25,栅区长度为30 mm时,应变传感灵敏度为7.05 pm/με。该结果对其他干涉型传感结构的设计具有一定的参考价值。     

Temperature-independent bending sensor with tilted fiber Bragg grating interacting with multimode fiber

A new type fiber bending sensor based on a tilted fiber Bragg grating (TFBG) interacting with a multimode fiber (MMF) is presented. The sensing head is formed by insertion of a small section of MMF between a single-mode fiber (SMF) and the TFBG. The average reflective power in the cladding modes decreases with the increase of curvature. The measurement range of the curvature from 0 to 2.5 m⁻¹ with a measurement sensitivity of −802.4 nW/m⁻¹ is achieved. The proposed sensor is also proved as temperature-independent from the experimental investigation.     

Temperature-independent tilted fiber grating vibration sensor based on cladding-core recoupling

A novel structure in which a short optical fiber stub containing a weakly tilted Bragg grating is spliced to another slightly offset fiber. The total power reflected from this structure is independent of temperature and occurs in two well-defined wavelength bands, only one of which reflects a different amount of power as the fiber stub bends or vibrates. The smart sensing structure presents an extremely high sensitivity for microbending, and its frequency response has been tested to higher than 2 kHz so far in temperature-immune vibration measurements via cost-effective power detection.     

Ultra-high-resolution large-dynamic-range optical fiber static strain sensor using Pound-Drever-Hall technique

We report the realization of a fiber-optic static strain sensor with ultrahigh resolution and large dynamic range for the applications of geophysical research. The sensor consists of a pair of fiber-Bragg-grating-based Fabry-Perot interferometers as sensor heads for strain sensing and reference, respectively. The Pound-Drever-Hall technique is employed to interrogate the sensor heads, and a cross-correlation algorithm is used to figure out the strain information with high precision. Static strain resolution down to 5.8 nanostrains is demonstrated. The dynamic range can be extended up to hundreds of microstrains, and the measuring period is a few tens of seconds.     

高分辨率光纤应变传感技术的研究

介绍光纤应变传感器中光纤端面反射镜的制作方法,镀膜光纤的连接技术和构成不对称光纤法布里－珀罗干涉腔的方法。应用低反射率不对称光纤法布里－ 珀罗干涉腔与光纤连接构成的光纤应变传感器,以提高分辨率;重点导出此干涉腔反射光与应变的数学模型,论述其工作原理和测量方法,通过实验证明文中所述应变传感原理和测量方法是正确的,其分辨率优于０－００６８με。     

Distributed optical fiber bi-directional strain sensor for gas trunk pipelines

In this paper, we designed an optical fiber bidirectional strain gauge bonded on each single detecting point. Based on detecting single point of markedly different value from the remainder of the fiber, the loss-modulation approach is appropriately applied to monitoring the strain/deflection of pipelines in OTDR. It is worth noting that the distortion of pipelines can be measured partly by detecting the strain at the joint suitable to monitor gas trunk pipelines. The key technology for measuring both tensile strain and compressive strain is the pretreatment of bending the optical fibers on the two pairs of bending points, which can be identified by optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) if inserting time delay optical fiber.     

Continuous-wave, totally fiber integrated optical parametric oscillator using holey fiber

We present, for the first time to our knowledge, a cw, all-fiber optical parametric oscillator that uses a holey fiber. The oscillator operates at 1.55 microns and can yield an oscillating parametric signal that consists of a single line with a 30-dB extinction ratio and a 10-pm linewidth or that consists of multiple lines. In addition to the signal and the idler, five other pairs of spectral lines can be observed that are due to multiple parametric interactions. The source reaches threshold for a pump power of 1.28 W and saturates for pump powers in excess of approximately 1.6 W.     

Applicability of classical optical fiber theories to holey fibers

We discuss the applicability of well-established classical optical fiber theories to holey fibers. By appropriately defining the V parameter, we can easily estimate the fundamental properties of holey fibers, such as effective index, group-velocity dispersion, mode field diameter, beam divergence, and splice loss, through simple empirical expressions without the need for heavy numerical computations. We confirm the validity of the V parameter defined here by comparing the calculated results with the earlier experimental and numerical results.     

Wave breaking in tapered holey fibers

We numerically study the propagation of 1-ps laser pulse in three tapered holey fibers (THFs).The curvature indices of the concave,linear,and convex tapers are 2.0,1.0,and 0.5,respectively.The central wavelength,located in the normal dispersion regime,is 800 nm.The nonlinear coefficient of the THFs increases from the initial 0.095 m-1· W-1 to the final 0.349 m-1·W-1.Wave breaking accompanied by oscillatory structures occurs near pulse edges,and sidelobes appear in the pulse spectrum.With the increase in propagation distance z,the pulse shape becomes broader and the pulse spectrum flattens.A concave THF is advantageous to the generation of wave breaking and enables easier achievement of super flat spectra at short lengths.     

Dual-source distributed optical fiber sensor for simultaneous temperature and strain measurements

A dual-source distributed optical fiber sensor system with combined Raman and Brillouin scatterings is designed for simultaneous temperature and strain measurements. The optimal Raman and Brillouin signals can be separately obtained by adjusting the powers of the two sources using an optical switch. The temperature and strain can be determined by processing the optimal Raman and Brillouin signals. The experimental result shows that 1.7 ?C temperature resolution and 60-με strain resolution can be achieved at a 24.7-km distance.     

Highly sensitive fiber refractive index sensor based on side-core holey structure

We propose a side-core holey fiber （SCHF）-based surface plasmon resonance （SPR） sensor to achieve high refractive index （RI） sensitivity. The SCHF structure can facilitate analyte filling and enhance the overlapping area of the core mode and surface plasmon polariton （SPP） mode. The coupling properties of the sensor are analyzed by numerical simulation. The maximum sensitivity of 5000 nm/RIU in an RI range of 1.33-1.44, and the average sensitivity of 9295 nm/RIU in an RI range from 1.44 to 1.54 can be obtained.     

Cleaving of solid single mode polymer optical fiber for strain sensor applications

Single mode polymer optical fibers (smPOFs) can be applied for measuring large strains in numerous applications, such as civil engineering infrastructure assessment and health monitoring. Because of the large light attenuation of solid smPOFs, small lengths of the fiber would need to be coupled to silica optical fibers (SOFs) for practical applications of the smPOF as a strain sensor. This coupling requires smooth cleaving of the smPOFs. In this work, several cleaving techniques previously demonstrated to provide smooth cross-sections of multimode POFs were applied to the smPOF. From these techniques, hot-knife cutting was determined to be a feasible method for cleaving when the blade was heated to 80 °C and the smPOF heated in the range of 30 °C to 40 °C. In addition, focused ion beam machining which produces high-precision cleaves of the solid smPOF cross-section, was performed to set a bench mark and thus evaluate the quality of cleaving from other methods used in this study.     

Investigation of a coated optical fiber strain sensor embedded in a linear strain matrix material

A theoretical model has been developed to study the mechanical behaviors of the interface between an embedded optical fiber with coating material and a linear strain matrix. The results show that the longitudinal stress and strain in the fiber optic sensor are different from that distributed in the host material and depend on the strain distribution and embedded length of the optical fiber as well as the material properties of the fiber coating. The distribution of interfacial shear strain between the coating and the glass fiber and the distribution of strain/stress of the glass fiber are given.     

Nonlinear fiber-optic strain sensor based on four-wave mixing in microstructured optical fiber

We demonstrate a nonlinear fiber-optic strain sensor, which uses the shifts of four-wave mixing Stokes and anti-Stokes peaks caused by the strain-induced changes in the structure and refractive index of a microstructured optical fiber. The sensor thus uses the inherent nonlinearity of the fiber and does not require any advanced postprocessing of the fiber. Strain sensitivity of -0.23 pm/με is achieved experimentally and numerical simulations reveal that for the present fiber the sensitivity can be increased to -4.46 pm/με by optimizing the pump wavelength and power.     

高灵敏度光纤应变传感器

提出一种基于锥形光纤和光纤F-P腔组合结构的光纤应变传感器。该传感器包含单模光纤拉锥形成的锥区和石英毛细管构建的F-P腔2个应变敏感区域。理论分析了光波在该传感器中的传播过程,获得了该传感器的光强传输函数。由于锥形光纤中激发出的包层高阶模参与干涉,导致传感器干涉光谱具有调制特性。实验获得了该传感器的干涉光谱,通过分析谐振波长偏移或消光比变化对应变实现独立测量,在0~500 με的测量范围内,该传感器的应变灵敏度为14.6 pm/με。利用锥形光纤引发的模式干涉和F-P腔的双光束干涉效应共同作用形成受调制的干涉谱型进行应变传感,应变灵敏度高,同时具备2种独立的应变检测手段(谐振波长和消光比检测)。     

微米级锥形光纤的近场光镊

分别从理论和实验上分析了光纤表面倏逝场强度的分布(z=10 nm, 100 nm, 500 nm,1 000 nm),研究了微米级光纤光镊对微球的操纵。实验中把直径为125 m的普通单模光纤拉制成锥腰直径为2 m的锥形光纤。当光纤通光时,在光纤锥区倏逝场的作用下,直径3 m的聚苯乙烯微球保持平衡状态,并且光纤附近的微球被吸引到光纤表面,以5.3 m /s的速度沿着光束的传播方向运动。这个实验不仅实现了对微球的成功捕获,而且验证了光纤光镊的力学作用。光纤光镊对微球的无接触、无损伤操纵,将在生物传感领域有潜在的应用。     

Refractive index and temperature sensing characteristics of an optical fiber sensor based on a tapered single mode fiber/polarization maintaining fiber

An evanescent field optical fiber sensor based on a short section of polarization maintaining fiber spliced with a tapered single mode fiber is proposed and experimentally investigated. We mainly focus on the refractive index(RI) and temperature sensing characteristics of this compact device. The transmission spectrum of the resonance wavelength,induced by the interference between the excited low order cladding modes and core modes,shows the quadratic function relationships with RI and linear relationships with temperature. Thus,the proposal of this simple-to-fabricate,compact,and low cost sensor shows its possible potential in the sensitive detection field.     

Study on pulse compression in tapered holey fibres

This paper proposes three kinds of tapered holey fibres with a multi-layer of holes whose pitch of air holes at the end of untapered and tapered are 5.8 μm and 1.8 μm. The central wavelength which locates in the anomalous dispersion region is 1.55 μm. An adaptive split-step Fourier method is numerically used to study the pulse propagation in tapered holey fibres. For the considered convex tapered holey fibre, at a wavelength of 1.55 μm, a compression factor of 136.7 can be achieved by initial width of 800 fs propagation through a length of 0.8 m. It demonstrates that in anomalous dispersion region, pulse can be compressed with the increase of nonlinearity coefficient and the decrease of dispersion coefficient.     

Temperature-independent refractive index measurement based on Fabry-Perot fiber tip sensor modulated by Fresnel reflection

A simple fiber tip sensor for refractive index(RI) measurement based on Fabry-Perot(FP) interference modulated by Fresnel reflection is proposed and demonstrated.The sensor head consists of an etchinginduced micro air gap near the tip of a single-mode fiber.The microgap and the fiber tip function as two reflectors to form a FP cavity.The external RI can be unambiguously measured by monitoring the fringe contrast of the interference pattern from the reflection spectrum.The experimental results show that the proposed sensor achieves temperature-independent RI measurement with good linear response.The proposed sensor achieves a high RI resolution of up to 3.4×10 5 and has advantages of low cost and easy fabrication.