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Indexed by:期刊论文

Date of Publication:2013-07-15

Journal:OPTICS COMMUNICATIONS

Included Journals:SCIE、EI

Volume:300

Page Number:194-198

ISSN No.:0030-4018

Key Words:Optical fiber; Sensor; Temperature; Sensitivity; Optical interferometry

Abstract:We present a novel fiber-optic Mach-Zehnder interferometeric (MZI) sensor for highly-sensitive and high temperature measurement. The fiber-optic MZI is constructed using a piece of multimode fiber (MMF) sandwiched between a single mode fiber (SMF) and a sensing tapered SMF. The MMF is used to excite the cladding modes in the sensing SMF. The core mode interferes strongly with the cladding modes in the sensing fiber at the tapered region, generating interference fringes in the transmission spectrum that are sensitive to temperature. Numerical simulation results using the finite-difference time-domain method agree well with the experimental results. Some prototype sensor probes are fabricated and characterized. We measure the wavelength shift of an interference dip as temperature change from room temperature to 850 degrees C. A sensor prototype with 2 cm sensing length exhibits a sensitivity of 85.8 pm/degrees C in the temperature range of 100-400 degrees C and 128.6 pm/degrees C in the range from 400 degrees C to 850 degrees C. This sensor can be further developed as a compact and economic high-temperature sensor for harsh environment application. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.