Experimental Study of Temperature Impact on Fiber Optic Current Sensor Elements

Abstract

AbstractFiber optic current sensors must meet 0.2S accuracy class in various environmental conditions in order to achieve a competitive position in the digital measuring device market. However, a number of external factors still limit their use. One of these factors is temperature. In this paper, we studied the temperature impact on the operation of optical elements that make up a fiber optic current sensor. Each element responds differently to changes in ambient temperature. Therefore, we considered each element of the optical scheme separately and experimentally investigated the evolution of the polarization state of light during heating and cooling of these elements. The study showed that the circulator is not affected by temperature, the modulator operates like a phase plate, and a parasitic polarization mode is excited in the delay line. The most affected by temperature are the quarter-wave plate and the sensitive spun fiber. It will lead to significant errors in the fiber optic current sensor measurements. Therefore, to ensure the high-precision operation of the device, it is necessary to develop algorithms for compensating the temperature dependences.KeywordsFiber optic current sensorTemperature impactPolarization statePoincare sphere