Yaxun Zhang

Hybrid structured fiber-optic Fabry–Perot interferometer for simultaneous measurement of strain and temperature

We fabricate and experimentally demonstrate a hybrid structured Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) embedded in the middle of a fiber line for simultaneous measurement of axial strain and temperature. The FPI is composed of a silica-cavity cascaded to a spheroidal air-cavity, both of which are formed in a hollow annular core fiber (HACF). The fabrication process of the FPI includes only a fusion splice between a single-mode fiber and a HACF and several electrical arc discharges at the HACF near the splice point. Experimental results show that the strain and temperature sensitivities of the air-cavity can be 5.2 pm/με and 1.3 pm/C°, respectively, and those of the silica-cavity can be 1.1 pm/με and 13 pm/C°, respectively. The different sensitivities of silica-cavity and air-cavity to strain and temperature enable us to implement simultaneous sensing in strain and temperature.

Simultaneous Measurement of Temperature and Curvature Based on Hollow Annular Core Fiber

We propose a simultaneous temperature and curvature sensor based on a hollow annular core fiber (HACF) Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI). The MZI is fabricated by inserting a short section of HACF between two short pieces of multimode fibers, and interference occurs between the light beams transmitting along the air hole and annular core of the HACF. Curvature and temperature can be measured through fringe visibility variation and wavelength shift of the interference spectrum, respectively. The experimental results show that the temperature sensitivity is 30 pm/°C in the range of 30°C-100°C, and the maximum visibility variation is 32.4 dB from 0.555 to 5.405 m-1. In addition, the device is insensitive to external refractive index.

Whispering gallery mode temperature sensor of liquid microresonastor

We propose and demonstrate a whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonance-based temperature sensor, where the microresonator is made of a DCM (2-[2-[4-(dimethylamino)phenyl] ethenyl]-6-methyl-4H-pyran-4-ylidene)-doped oil droplet (a liquid material) immersed in the water solution. The oil droplet is trapped, controlled, and located by a dual-fiber optical tweezers, which prevents the deformation of the liquid droplet. We excite the fluorescence and lasing in the oil droplet and measure the shifts of the resonance wavelength at different temperatures. The results show that the resonance wavelength redshifts when the temperature increases. The testing sensitivity is 0.377 nm/°C in the temperature range 25°C-45°C. The results of the photobleaching testing of the dye indicate that measured errors can be reduced by reducing the measured time. As far as we know, this is the first time a WGM temperature sensor with a liquid state microcavity has been proposed. Compared with the solid microresonator, the utilization of the liquid microresonator improves the thermal sensitivity and provides the possibility of sensing in liquid samples or integrating into the chemical analyzers and microfluidic systems.

Compact distributed fiber SPR sensor based on TDM and WDM technology

By using a twin-core fiber (TCF), we propose and demonstrate a novel distributed SPR sensor, which employs both the time division multiplexing (TDM) technology and the wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology together. The proposed sensor has two sensing passages with four sensing channels (and there are two sensing channels in each sensing passage). We employ the TDM technology to realize the two passage distributed sensing, which are parallel-connection; and we employ the WDM technology to realize the distributed sensing of two channels in a sensing passage, which are series-connected. In order to realize the TDM technology, we employ a two-core fiber, which has two cores in a same cladding, being equal to dividing the traditional single core into two independent sensing zones; in order to realize the WDM technology, we employ a fiber end polishing-connecting method to adjust the resonance angle/wavelength to realize the dynamic range separation. This twin-passage four-channel twin-core fiber SPR sensor is suitable for applying in fields of the multi-channel liquid refractive index and temperature self-reference measurement.

Distributed fiber surface plasmon resonance sensor based on the incident angle adjusting method.

We propose and demonstrate a distributed surface plasmon resonance (SPR) fiber sensor based on a novel, simple, and effective incident angle adjusting method. For normal fiber SPR sensors, it is hard to realize distributed sensing because it is hard to produce two dynamic ranges (resonance wavebands) with a great difference. The dynamic range depends on the incident angle, and therefore, we propose an incident angle adjusting method that is implemented by grinding an eccentric-core fiber to different angles, which helps to produce different SPR wavebands with great difference, thus realizing distributed sensing. In our two cascaded distributed configuration, with the refractive index range of 1.333-1.385, the fiber grind angles are 9° and 17°, the testing wavelength ranges are 613-760 nm and 745-944 nm, and the average testing sensitivities are 2826 nm/RIU and 4738 nm/RIU, respectively. Larger resonance wavelengths are associated with larger testing sensitivities. This distributed fiber sensor has important significance in the fields of multichannel liquid refractive indices and temperature self-reference measurements.

Refractive Index Sensing Characteristics of Single-Mode Fiber-Based Modal Interferometers

We present a theoretical and experimental investigation on refractive index (RI) sensing characteristics of single mode fiber (SMF) based modal interferometers. Theoretical analysis reveals that interference between different modes in an SMF has a quite different response to the RI variation of the external medium. The interference between the core and lower order cladding modes has negative RI sensitivity whereas that between the core and higher order modes, or between two different order cladding modes have positive sensitivity. A single-mode-multimode-single-mode (SMS) fiber Michelson interferometer with a large-core step-index multimode fiber (MMF) is employed for experimental verification. In the SMS-based Michelson interferometer, the MMF acts as a mode coupler to excite cladding modes in the SMF. The RI response of the SMS-based structures with two different lengths of MMF are respectively tested in sodium-chloride water solutions. Experimental results show excellent agreements with the theoretical analysis.

All-fiber self-accelerating Bessel-like beam generator and its application.

We demonstrate an all-fiber transverse self-accelerating Bessel-like beam generator and its optical trapping application. The theoretical and experimental studies have been provided to verify this beam properties. We produce the Bessel-like beam by splicing the single-mode fiber and multimode fiber with a defined offset and then modulating the output light beam phase by fabricating a small hemispherical-lens fiber tip; therefore, the phase-modulated Bessel-like beam generates the properties of transverse self-accelerating. The transverse acceleration of the the Bessel-like beam generated here is ∼10(-4)  μm(-1), which is almost 100 times larger than that of the beam generated in the free-space optical circuit based on the lens. The experimental and simulated results have good consistencies. The realization of the microparticle transverse acceleration transporting with this Bessel-like beam provides a new method for microparticles to be transported in a bending trajectory. This all-fiber transverse self-accelerating Bessel-like beam generator structure is simple, with high integration and small size, and constitutes a new development for high-precision biological cell experiments and manipulations.

Surface-plasmon-resonance-based optical-fiber temperature sensor with high sensitivity and high figure of merit

We propose and demonstrate a novel and compact optical-fiber temperature sensor with a high sensitivity and high figure of merit (FOM) based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR). The sensor is fabricated by employing a single-mode twin-core fiber (TCF), which is polished as a circular truncated cone and coated with a layer of gold film and a layer of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Owing to the high refractive index sensitivity of SPR sensors and high thermo-optic coefficient of PDMS, the sensor realizes a high temperature sensitivity of -4.13  nm/°C to -2.07  nm/°C in the range from 20°C to 70°C, transcending most other types of optical-fiber temperature sensors. Owing to the fundamental mode beam transmitting in the TCF, the sensor realizes a high FOM of up to 0.034/°C, more than twice that of SPR sensors based on multimode fiber. The proposed temperature sensor is meaningful and will have potential applications in many fields, such as biomedical and biomaterial.

Single-fiber tweezers applied for dye lasing in a fluid droplet

We report on the first demonstration of a single-fiber optical tweezer that is utilized to stabilize and control the liquid droplet for dye lasing. In order to trap a liquid droplet with a diameter of 15-30 μm, an annular core micro-structured optical fiber is adopted. By using wavelength division multiplexing technology, we couple a trapping light source (980 nm) and a pumping light source (532 nm) into the annular core of the fiber to realize the trapping, controlling, and pumping of the oil droplet. We show that the laser emission spectrum tunes along the same size as the oil droplet. The lasing threshold of the oil droplet with the diameter of 24 μm is 0.7 μJ. The presented fiber-based optical manipulation of liquid droplet micro-lasers can be easily combined with the micro-fluidic chip technology and also may extend the application of optical fiber tweezers for micro-droplet lasing technology in the biological field.

Dual-truncated-cone structure for quasi-distributed multichannel fiber surface plasmon resonance sensor.

We propose and demonstrate an effective method to adjust the dynamic range of a fiber surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor by introducing a multimode fiber-sensing probe with a dual-truncated-cone (DTC) structure. When the grind angle of the DTC structure increases, the dynamic range redshifts. Based on this result, we fabricate a quasi-distributed two-channel multimode fiber SPR sensor by cascaded-connecting a DTC-sensing probe of 14° grind angle and a traditional transmitted multimode fiber (TMF)-sensing probe in the same fiber. The corresponding sensitivities of two sensing probes are 3423.08 nm/RIU and 2288.46 nm/RIU. By using this quasi-distributed multichannel fiber SPR-sensing approach, we may improve the detecting accuracy by extracting, calibrating, and compensating for the signals caused by the nonspecific bindings, other physical absorptions, and temperature changes in detecting samples, truly achieving dynamic detection in real-time. The excellence of this multichannel fiber SPR sensor is that the sensitivity of each subchannel-sensing probe stays unreduced after it is cascaded-connected in the main-channel fiber; the sensor is based on the multimode fiber, which is inexpensive, accessible, and convenient to be universalized in applications.