High temperature Fabry-Perot probe interrogated with tunable fibre ring laser

A high temperature fibre-optic based probe is described based on a miniature Fabry-Perot with a maximum operating temperature of ~700degC limited by the gold coated fibre transceiver link connecting the optical source to the probe. It was interrogated by a tunable fibre laser which could be linearly or sinusoidally tuned at scanning rates of 2 and 20 kHz, respectively. The transfer function of the system is in the form of channelled spectra rather than the usual interference fringes observed for interferometric sensors. The periodicity of the channelled spectra fringes is governed by the Fabry-Perot free spectral range which is related to the inverse of the probe temperature.