Temperature fiber sensor based on single longitudinal mode fiber laser in 2 μm band with Sagnac interferometer

Abstract

Abstract A single longitudinal mode (SLM) fiber laser with a ring cavity based on Sagnac interferometer (SI) for temperature sensing in the 2-μm band is proposed and demonstrated. The simulation and experimental results show that the transmission spectrum of the SI filter is sensitive to temperature change. Based on this distinguishing feature, the correlation between the laser wavelength drift and temperature variation can be established. Experimental results show that the proposed laser operates stably at the resonant wavelength of 1988.21 nm and the optical signal-to-noise ratio is approximately 55 dB at ambient temperature. Through continuous measurement for 100 min, the fluctuation of the output laser power is lower than 0.74 dB, and the resonant wavelength shift is less than the minimum resolution of the spectrometer of 0.05 nm. This indicates that it has good stability for a certain period of time. At the same time, the laser operates stably in SLM state. A temperature sensitivity of 2.09 nm/°C is obtained in experiment. Notably, the proposed fiber laser sensor possesses the merits including high sensitivity, low cost and simple structure, which are beneficial to its practical application.