Fabry-Perot cavity based on air bubble in multimode fiber for sensing applications

Abstract

There is a set of important selection criteria in the design of fiber optic sensors that determine the compromise between design complexity and performance. Optical fiber sensors not only withstand high temperatures, but they can also operate in different chemical and aqueous media allowing measurements in areas not otherwise accessible. A Fabry-Perot cavity based on an air bubble created in a multimode fiber section is proposed. The air bubble is formed using only cleaving and fusion splicing techniques. The parameters used to produce the microcavities were found empirically. Two different configurations are explored: an inline cavity formed between two sections of MMF, and a fiber tip sensor. In the last, after the air bubble is created, a cleave is made near the cavity, after which the sensor is subjected to several electrical arcs to reshape the cavity and obtain a thin diaphragm. The inline sensor, with a length of ~297 μm, was used to measure strain and presented a sensitivity of 6.48 pm/μe. Regarding the fiber tip sensor, it was subjected to glycerin/water mixture variations, by immerging the sensing head in several solutions with different concentrations of water in glycerin. In this case, the sensor had a length of ~167 μm and a diaphragm thickness of ~20 μm. As expected, with the increase of the external medium refractive index, the sensor visibility decreased. Furthermore, a wavelength shift towards red was observed, with a sensitivity of 7.81 pm/%wt. Both devices exhibited low dependence to temperature (<1.8 pm/°C).