A microwave photonic scheme for improving the sensitivity of Mach-Zehnder optical fiber interferometer sensor

A novel scheme to improve the sensitivity of Mach-Zehnder optical fiber interferometer sensor is demonstrated using a single side band (SSB) modulation technique, which is based on the microwave photonics principle to modulate the microwave signal on the optical carrier. Since the frequency of microwave signal can be dynamically tuned, the sensitivity of sensor can be tunably improved. Both the simulation and experimental results show that a maximum sensitivity can be periodically obtained by choosing a series of optimal frequencies of microwave signal modulated on the optical carrier using SSB technique.