Abstract
A fiber inline Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) consisting of ultra-abrupt fiber tapers was fabricated through a new fusion-splicing method. By fusion-splicing, the taper diameter-length ratio is around 1:1, which is much greater than those (1:10) made by stretching. The proposed fabrication method is very low cost, 1/20-1/50 of those of LPFG pair MZI sensors. The fabricated MZIs are applied to measure refractive index, temperature and rotation angle changes. The temperature sensitivity of the MZI at a length of 30 mm is 0.061 nm/°C from 30-350 °C. The proposed MZI is also used to measure rotation angles ranging from 0° to 0.55°; the sensitivity is 54.98 nm/°. The refractive index sensitivity is improved by 3-5 fold by fabricating an inline micro-trench on the fiber cladding using a femtosecond laser. Acetone vapor of 50 ppm in N2 is tested by the MZI sensor coated with MFI-type zeolite thin film. The proposed MZI sensors are capable of in situ detection in many areas of interest such as environmental management, industrial process control, and public health.
Recommended Citation
B. Li et al., "Ultra-Abrupt Tapered Fiber Mach-Zehnder Interferometer Sensors," Sensors, MDPI, Jan 2011.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.3390/s110605729
Department(s)
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Second Department
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Keywords and Phrases
Fiber Sensors; Refractive Index; Mach-Zehnder Interferometer; Zeolite Coating
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
1424-8220
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2011 MDPI, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Jan 2011
