Kok-Sing Lim

Chronology of Fabry-Perot Interferometer Fiber-Optic Sensors and Their Applications: A Review

Optical fibers have been involved in the area of sensing applications for more than four decades. Moreover, interferometric optical fiber sensors have attracted broad interest for their prospective applications in sensing temperature, refractive index, strain measurement, pressure, acoustic wave, vibration, magnetic field, and voltage. During this time, numerous types of interferometers have been developed such as Fabry-Perot, Michelson, Mach-Zehnder, Sagnac Fiber, and Common-path interferometers. Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) fiber-optic sensors have been extensively investigated for their exceedingly effective, simple fabrication as well as low cost aspects. In this study, a wide variety of FPI sensors are reviewed in terms of fabrication methods, principle of operation and their sensing applications. The chronology of the development of FPI sensors and their implementation in various applications are discussed.

Integrated Microfibre Device for Refractive Index and Temperature Sensing

A microfibre device integrating a microfibre knot resonator in a Sagnac loop reflector is proposed for refractive index and temperature sensing. The reflective configuration of this optical structure offers the advantages of simple fabrication and ease of sensing. To achieve a balance between responsiveness and robustness, the entire microfibre structure is embedded in low index Teflon, except for the 0.5–2 mm diameter microfibre knot resonator sensing region. The proposed sensor has exhibited a linear spectral response with temperature and refractive index. A small change in free spectral range is observed when the microfibre device experiences a large refractive index change in the surrounding medium. The change is found to be in agreement with calculated results based on dispersion relationships.

Resonance condition of a microfiber knot resonator immersed in liquids

Effects of immersing a microfiber knot resonator (MKR) in liquid solutions that have refractive indices close to that of silica are experimentally demonstrated and theoretically analyzed. Significant improvement in resonance extinction ratio within 2 to 10 dB was observed. To achieve a better understanding, a qualitative analysis of the coupling ratio and round-trip attenuation of the MKR is performed by using a curve-fitting method. It was observed that the coupling coefficient at the knot region increased when immersed in liquids. However, depending on the initial state of the coupling and the quantity of the increment in the coupling coefficient when immersed in a liquid, it is possible that the MKR may experience a deficit in the coupling parameter due to the sinusoidal relationship with the coupling coefficient.

In-Fiber Gratings for Simultaneous Monitoring Temperature and Strain in Ultrahigh Temperature

In this letter, a pair of regenerated gratings with Bragg wavelengths of 1547 and 1304 nm in a single piece of singlemode fiber has been fabricated for simultaneous monitoring of temperature and strain in ultrahigh temperature environment. A 3 × 3 matrix is used to characterize the cross sensitivity of the proposed sensor in which the strain sensitivity varies with temperature change. The proposed structure exhibits the deviation of 28.3 με and 4.1 °C at the ranges of 0-1000 με and 25 °C- 900 °C, respectively.

Dual wavelength erbium-doped fiber laser using a tapered fiber

A tapered fiber is fabricated by heating and stretching a piece of optical fiber after the polymer protective cladding has been removed. An equidistant comb-like transmission spectrum, with a spacing of 1.6 nm and an extinction ratio of more than 5 dB, was obtained by the tapered fiber due to the multibeam interferences of the cladding modes. The tapered fiber was applied in a ring erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) to generate dual-wavelength lasing oscillations. The EDFL operates at wavelengths of 1557.0 nm and 1558.6 nm with a stable peak power and a signal-to-noise ratio of more than 40 dB.

Characterization of Mode Coupling in Few-Mode FBG With Selective Mode Excitation

We present the results on fabrication and the characterization of few-mode fiber Bragg gratings (FM-FBGs) inscribed in two mode and four mode step-index fibers. Under the conditions of selective input mode launching, coupling between specific modes of interest can be selectively excited and the self-coupling and cross-coupling properties at the associated resonant wavelengths can be clearly identified and verified by observing the reflected mode intensity profiles. Such FM-FBGs can potentially be used as reflective mode-converters for mode division multiplexed data transmission systems.

Axial contraction in etched optical fiber due to internal stress reduction

When an optical fiber is dipped in an etching solution, the internal stress profile in the fiber varies with the fiber diameter. We observed a physical contraction as much as 0.2% in the fiber axial dimension when the fiber was reduced from its original diameter to ~6 µm through analysis using high resolution microscope images of the grating period of an etched FBG at different fiber diameters. This axial contraction is related to the varying axial stress profile in the fiber when the fiber diameter is reduced. On top of that, the refractive index of fiber core increases with reducing fiber diameter due to stress-optic effect. The calculated index increment is as much as 1.8 × 10(-3) at the center of fiber core after the diameter is reduced down to ~6 µm. In comparison with the conventional model that assumes constant grating period and neglects the variation in stress-induced index change in fiber core, our proposed model indicates a discrepancy as much as 3nm in Bragg wavelength at a fiber diameter of ~6 µm.

Comparisons of Multi-Wavelength Oscillations Using Sagnac Loop Mirror and Mach-Zehnder Interferometer for Ytterbium Doped Fiber Lasers

A multiwavelength Ytterbium-doped fiber ring laser operating at 1030 nm region is demonstrated using a Sagnac loop mirror and a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. We report the Performance comparisons of multi-wavelength oscillations in Yb3+ doped fiber lasers (YDFL) with typical commercial ytterbium doped silica fibers. By adjusting the polarization controller (PC), a widely tunable laser range of 22 nm from 1030 nm to 1050 nm is obtained. The Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) design has exhibited simplicity in the operation for controlling the smallest wavelength spacing compared to Sagnac loop mirror method. In our observations, the smallest achieved stable wavelength spacing in Sagnac loop mirror setup and MZI setup were 2.1 nm and 0.7 nm, respectively. In case of nine-wavelength operation with a MZI setup, the stability, Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) and side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of laser lines are not affected by increasing pump power, While for above four wavelength operation, the laser stability with Sagnac loop mirror becomes worse specially for higher input pump power and the power fluctuation among the wave-lengths would be also slightly larger.

Fabrication of tapered fiber based ring resonator

Tapered fiber based ring resonators are fabricated and its optical characteristic is investigated in detail. The ring resonator is fabricated by coiling the tapered fiber, which is firstly made by heating and stretching a piece of optical fiber, after the polymer protective cladding has been removed The comb filter with a constant free spectral range (FSR) and the maximum extinction ratio of 4.2 dB is achieved by a single-mode fiber based ring resonator. The FSR of ring resonator can be adjusted by controlling the diameter of the ring. The extinction ratio is improved in the polarization maintaining fiber based ring resonator where the maximum extinction ratio of 14 dB is achieved at 1531 nm region.

Analytical and experimental studies on asymmetric bundle fiber displacement sensors

A fiber-optic displacement sensor (FODS) is theoretically and experimentally studied using an asymmetrical bundled fiber. The bundled fiber consists of two parallel fibers with different core radial ratios (CRRs) to achieve different sensitivity and dynamic range for displacement measurements. Both analytical modeling and experimental observations show that the linear range and sensitivity can be adjusted by controlling the CRR between transmitting and receiving fibers. This increases the flexibility of the sensor, which can be used for precise non-contact sensing applications.