Bai-Ou Guan

Simultaneous strain and temperature measurement using a superstructure fiber Bragg grating

A novel and simple fiber-optic sensor based on a superstructure fiber Bragg grating (SFBG) for simultaneous strain and temperature measurement is proposed and demonstrated. The transmission spectrum of the sensor possesses several narrow-band loss peaks situated on the slope of a broad-band loss peak. By measuring the transmitted intensity and wavelength at one of the loss peaks, strain and temperature can be determined simultaneously. The accuracy of the sensor in measuring strain and temperature is estimated to be /spl plusmn/20 /spl mu//spl epsiv/ in a range from 0 to 1200 /spl mu//spl epsiv/ and /spl plusmn/1.2/spl deg/C from 20/spl deg/C to 120/spl deg/C, respectively.

High-pressure and high-temperature characteristics of a Fabry–Perot interferometer based on photonic crystal fiber

A fiber-optic Fabry-Perot interferometer was constructed by splicing a short length of photonic crystal fiber to a standard single-mode fiber. The photonic crystal fiber functions as a Fabry-Perot cavity and serves as a direct sensing probe without any additional components. Its pressure and temperature responses in the range of 0-40 MPa and 25°C-700°C were experimentally studied. The proposed sensor is easy to fabricate, potentially low-cost, and compact in size, which makes it very attractive for high-pressure and high-temperature sensing applications.

Ultrasonic hydrophone based on distributed Bragg reflector fiber laser

We demonstrate a novel fiber-optic hydrophone that uses a dual polarization distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) fiber laser as sensing element. The operation principle is based on the modulation of the birefringence of the fiber laser by high-frequency ultrasound. By measuring the amplitude and frequency of the sidebands as well as the polarization beat frequency of the output of the fiber laser using a photodetector and a radio-frequency spectrum analyzer, the amplitude and frequency of the acoustic pressure, and temperature can be determined simultaneously. The DBR fiber laser hydrophone has a linear response to acoustic pressure and can detect acoustic frequency up to at least 40 MHz.

Temperature-independent fiber Bragg grating tilt sensor

We report a vertical-pendulum-based fiber Bragg grating tilt sensor, which can detect the magnitude as well as the direction of the inclination from the horizontal direction. The sensor is insensitive to temperature, and preliminary results show that tilt angle accuracy and resolution of better than 0.1/spl deg/ and 0.007/spl deg/ can be easily achieved.

Polarimetric Heterodyning Fiber Grating Laser Sensors

Fiber grating laser sensors have been attracting great interest because of their high signal-to-noise ratio and narrow linewidth that permit high resolution sensing. According to the working principle, fiber grating laser sensors can be classified into two types: wavelength encoding sensor and polarimetric heterodyning sensor. The former responds to external perturbations in terms of shift in the operation wavelength of the fiber laser, which is similar to that of fiber grating sensor. The latter converts measurand into change in beat frequency between the two orthogonal polarization modes from the fiber laser. The polarimetric fiber grating laser sensor not only has almost all advantages of passive fiber grating sensors, but also has a distinctive advantage of ease of interrogation. This is because the beat frequency is in the RF domain, which avoids the employment of expensive wavelength measurement devices. This type of sensor has been demonstrated for measurement of temperature, axial strain, lateral force, hydrostatic pressure, bending, displacement, acceleration, electric current, and acoustic and ultrasonic signal. In this paper, we review the principle, fabrication, characterization, and implementation of the polarimetric heterodyning fiber grating laser sensors, and the sensor multiplexing in the RF domain.

High pressure sensor based on photonic crystal fiber for downhole application

We demonstrate a polarization-maintaining (PM) photonic crystal fiber (PCF) based Sagnac interferometer for downhole high pressure sensing application. The PM PCF serves as a direct pressure sensing probe. The sensor is transducer free and thus fundamentally enhances its long-term sensing stability. In addition, the PM PCF can be coiled into a small diameter to fulfill the compact size requirement of downhole application. A theoretical study of its loss and birefringence changes with different coiling diameters has been carried out. This bend-insensitive property of the fiber provides ease for sensor design and benefits practical application. The pressure sensitivities of the proposed sensor are 4.21 and 3.24 nm/MPa at ∼1320  and ∼1550 nm, respectively. High pressure measurement up to 20 MPa was achieved with our experiment. It shows both good linearity in response to applied pressure and good repeatability within the entire measurement range. The proposed pressure sensor exhibits low temperature cross sensitivity and high temperature sustainability. It functions well without any measurable degradation effects on sensitivity or linearity at a temperature as high as 293 °C. These characteristics make it a potentially ideal candidate for downhole pressure sensing.

Ultrasensitive refractive-index sensors based on rectangular silica microfibers

We demonstrate an ultrasensitive refractive-index (RI) sensor utilizing the polarimetric interference of a rectangular silica microfiber. The measured sensitivity is as high as 18,987 nm/RIU (refractive-index unit) around the RI of 1.33, which is 1 order of magnitude higher than that of the previously reported microfiber devices. Theoretical analysis reveals that such high sensitivity not only is originated from the RI-induced birefringence variation but also relies on the unique birefringence dispersion property for the rectangular microfiber. We predict that the sensitivity can be enhanced significantly when the group birefringence approaches zero.

193nm excimer laser inscribed Bragg gratings in microfibers for refractive index sensing

We demonstrate the inscription of fiber Bragg gratings by 193 nm ArF excimer laser in microfibers drawn from the standard single mode telecommunication fiber. Fiber Bragg gratings are directly inscribed in a series of microfibers with diameter ranged from tens of μm to 3.3 μm without hydrogen loading or other treatment to photosensitize the microfibers. Four reflection peaks are observed where three correspond to high order mode resonances. The resonance wavelength depends on the fiber diameter and it sharply blueshifts as the diameter is decreased below 10 μm. The gratings are characterized for their response to ambient refractive index. The higher order mode resonance exhibits higher sensitivity to refractive index.

In-situ DNA hybridization detection with a reflective microfiber grating biosensor

A label-free fiber-optic biosensor with a reflective microfiber Bragg grating (mFBG) configuration for in-situ DNA hybridization detection has been proposed and experimentally demonstrated. A single straight Bragg grating inscribed in the silica microfiber provides two well-defined resonances in reflection, which show different response to external medium refractive index (RI) and present the same temperature sensitivity. By monitoring the wavelength separation between these two resonances, temperature-compensated RI measurement has been achieved. The label-free bio-recognition scheme used demonstrates that the sensor relies on the surface functionalization of a monolayer of poly-l-lysine (PLL), synthetic DNA sequences that bind with high specificity to a given target. In addition to monitoring the surface functionalization of the fiber in real-time, the results also show how the fiber biosensor can detect the presence of the DNA hybridization with high specificity, in various concentration of target DNA solutions, with lowest detectable concentration of 0.5 µM.

Miniature highly-birefringent microfiber loop with extremely-high refractive index sensitivity.

A miniature polarimetric interferometer with the twist of a highly-birefringent microfiber is demonstrated. Good transmission spectral characteristics, which are co-governed by the birefringence and the twist degree of the microfiber, are investigated. The structure exhibits extremely-high sensitivity of around 24,373 nm per refractive-index unit and excellent temperature stability of better than 0.005 nm/°C. Featured with compactness, reconfigurability, stability, robustness, and compatibility with other fiberized components, our device has potential in tunable filtering, sensing, multi-wavelength lasing, and etc.