Twisted Optical Microfibers for Refractive Index Sensing

Author

Liao, C.R. ; Wang, D.N. ; He, Xiaoying ; Yang, M.W.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Hong Kong Polytech. Univ., Kowloon, China

Volume

23

Issue

13

fYear

2011

fDate

7/1/2011 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

848

Lastpage

850

Abstract

A simple, compact, and robust refractive index sensor is developed, by twisting a pair of silica microfibers to form a coupling device. The transmission spectrum of the device is highly sensitive to the surrounding refractive index and the highest sensitivity obtained is -2377 nm/refractive index unit (RIU), at the refractive index value of - 1.3680, for the fibers with diameter of ~4.2 μm, and the sensitivity can be further increased to - 2735 nm/RIU for a smaller fiber diameter of ~2.8 μm. Such a device is easy to construct, of low cost, and compatible with the optical fiber system.

Keywords

fibre optic sensors; light transmission; micro-optics; optical fibre couplers; refractive index; silicon compounds; SiO₂; coupling device; fiber diameter; optical fiber system; refractive index sensing; refractive index unit; silica microflbers; size 2.8 mum; size 4.2 mum; transmission spectrum; twisted optical microfibers; Couplings; Optical fiber couplers; Optical fiber sensors; Optical ring resonators; Sensitivity; Optical microfiber; refractive index sensor;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2011.2138126

Filename

5744101