Liquid crystal-embedded fiber optic fabry perot temperature sensor based on Vernier effect

Abstract

An optical temperature sensing method with ultra-high sensitivity and a wide measurement range is proposed. The performance enhancements come from the high thermos-optical coefficient of liquid crystal (LC) material, and the Vernier effect produced by LC birefringence characteristics. This paper proposes and demonstrates a method to enhance the measurement range of the LC temperature sensor. A miniature LC temperature sensor was made by using an optical fiber Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI). To compensate for and attenuation of LC and improve the contrast of the FPI, silver films are coated on one end of the optical fiber. Due to the high birefringence of the LC in the interferometer, a Vernier spectrum can be observed in the reflection. The temperature measurement range of 20–32 °C and the temperature sensitivity of the Vernier peaks of a sensor sample is about 42.18 nm/°C, which is much higher than the sensitivity of the cascaded FBG in structure. The limited measurement range is due to the free spectral range (FSR) limitation. In this context, the FBG peak can be used as a temperature reference while switching the adjacent Vernier peaks. Hence, this LC temperature sensor exhibits high sensitivity as well as a wide measuring range, which would broaden the application scope of the LC temperature sensors.