Xianfan Wang

A Humidity Sensor Based on a Singlemode-Side Polished Multimode–Singlemode Optical Fibre Structure Coated with Gelatin

A novel relative humidity sensor based on a singlemode-side polished multimode-singlemode fibre structure coated with gelatin material is reported. The sensing principle and fabrication method of the proposed sensor are presented. The experimental method is demonstrated to provide the optimum thickness of coating layers in order to achieve the highest sensitivity of 0.14 dB/%RH and a fast response time of 1000 ms for a given relative humidity sensing range. The developed humidity fibre optic sensor based on a gelatin coating shows great potential for many applications such as industrial production, food processing, and environmental monitoring.

A Review of Multimode Interference in Tapered Optical Fibers and Related Applications

In recent years, tapered optical fibers (TOFs) have attracted increasing interest and developed into a range of devices used in many practical applications ranging from optical communication, sensing to optical manipulation and high-Q resonators. Compared with conventional optical fibers, TOFs possess a range of unique features, such as large evanescent field, strong optical confinement, mechanical flexibility and compactness. In this review, we critically summarize the multimode interference in TOFs and some of its applications with a focus on our research project undertaken at the Optoelectronics Research Centre of the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom.

Investigation of a novel SMS fiber based planar multimode waveguide and its sensing performance

A novel, MMI-based all-fiber structure, which consists of two single-mode fibers and a multimode fiber polished on both sides, is described. The light propagation characteristics of this fiber structure, as well as its superior sensing performance, are analyzed theoretically by using the beam propagation method (BPM). This fiber structure demonstrates a significant spectral response to changes of the surrounding refractive index (RI), and the measured results exhibit good agreement with the predicted data. The measured average RI sensitivity is as high as 151.29 nm/RIU over an RI range from 1.3450 to 1.4050, when the polished depth is 30 µm on both sides of the multimode fiber. This fiber structure can be an advantageous platform for various applications, especially for a lab-on-fiber type sensing application.