Photonic Crystal Fiber Mach-Zehnder Interferometer for Refractive Index Sensing

Sensors

Jian-Neng Wang¹ 

[1] Department of Construction Engineering, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Douliou 64002, Taiwan

关键词: photonic crystal fiber (PCF);    interferometer;    refractive index (RI);    wavelength shift;    fringe period;    fringe visibility;    sensitivity;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s120302983

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

We report on a refractive index sensor using a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) interferometer which was realized by fusion splicing a short section of PCF (Blaze Photonics, LMA-10) between two standard single mode fibers. The fully collapsed air holes of the PCF at the spice regions allow the coupling of PCF core and cladding modes that makes a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The transmission spectrum exhibits sinusoidal interference pattern which shifts differently when the cladding/core surface of the PCF is immersed with different RI of the surrounding medium. Experimental results using wavelength-shift interrogation for sensing different concentrations of sucrose solution show that a resolution of 1.62 × 10⁻⁴–8.88 × 10⁻⁴ RIU or 1.02 × 10⁻⁴–9.04 × 10⁻⁴ RIU (sensing length for 3.50 or 5.00 cm, respectively) was achieved for refractive indices in the range of 1.333 to 1.422, suggesting that the PCF interferometer are attractive for chemical, biological, biochemical sensing with aqueous solutions, as well as for civil engineering and environmental monitoring applications.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland