An aluminum-coated asymmetric core-offset Mach-Zehnder interferometer temperature sensor

Abstract

Abstract In this work, a temperature sensor based on an asymmetric core-offset Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) coated with aluminum is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The interferometer is fabricated by core-offset splicing three sections of single mode fiber, and by coating it with aluminum using a thermal evaporation technique. The temperature sensitivity of the device increases by a factor of 3.4 to 120\xa0pm/°C after coating, while the interferometric fringe pattern shows an augmented contrast of 8.5 dBm. The experimental results are compared to those obtained with the uncoated MZI to point out the enhancement in the sensibility.