A new type of evanescent field sensors based on a doubly cladding single mode fiber is proposed. The theoretical analysis shows that the measurable refractive index (RI) ranges for the sensors are limited in the single mode in the fiber becoming leaky and the range is less than the RI difference between the core and the cladding of the fibers. Two temperature sensors and a humidity sensor were fabricated. One temperature sensor showed a good linear response in a range of 60°C, the modulation depth of 40 dB, and the insertion loss of -1.4 dB. The humidity sensors fabricated by agarose gel had a measurable moisture range of 16 ~ 100% of RH. Its optical power variation with humidity is 8.5 dB and insertion loss is 3.9 dB. We confirmed that the DC single mode fiber sensors became a new type of intensity sensors characterized in good linear response, low insertion loss, high modulation depth, and low cost in fabrication.

Date Published: 9 November 2010
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 7853, Advanced Sensor Systems and Applications IV, 78530H (9 November 2010); doi: 10.1117/12.870121

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7853:
Advanced Sensor Systems and Applications IV
Brian Culshaw; Yanbiao Liao; Anbo Wang; Xiaoyi Bao; Xudong Fan; Lin Zhang, Editor(s)