Fiber optic liquid refractive index sensor

Abstract

In this present work we report fabrication of fiber optic liquid refractive index (RI) measurement sensor based on Michelson Interferometer method. This sensor was assembled by using graded index multimode (MM) fiber with core diameter 50 µm and the cladding of fiber was removed by simple chemical method. To perform this experiment a 2×2 3dB coupler is used. The fiber ends are then immersed in solvent and solution to provide reference and refractive index measurements, respectively. This method was successfully used to measure refractive index of Sodium Chloride (NaCl)-Water solution at different concentrations. The fringe contrast sensitivity of device is 92.90 dB/RIU measured in the RI range from 1.34 to 1.42 which is better than Mach-Zehnder Interferometer sensor [1] and Fabry perot based sensor [2]. The fabrication of sensor is simple, low cost and highly sensitive.