Optical Fiber Temperature Sensor Research Articles

High-Sensitivity Temperature Sensor Based on Fiber Fabry-Pérot Interferometer with UV Glue-Filled Hollow Capillary Fiber.

Optical fiber Fabry-Pérot (FP) interferometer sensors have long been the focus of researchers in sensing applications because of their simple light path, low cost, compact size and convenient manufacturing methods. A miniature and highly sensitive optic fiber temperature sensor using an ultraviolet glue-filled FP cavity in a hollow capillary fiber is proposed. The sensor is fabricated by fusion splicing a single-mode fiber with a hollow capillary fiber, which is filled with ultraviolet glue to form a FP cavity. The sensor has a good linear response in the temperature testing and high-temperature sensitivity, which can be increased with the length of the FP cavity. The experimental results show that the temperature sensitivity reaches 1.174 nm/°C with a high linear response in the range of 30-60 °C. In addition, this sensor is insensitive to pressure and can be highly suitable for real-time water temperature monitoring for ocean research. The proposed ultraviolet glue-filled structure has the advantages of easy fabrication, high-temperature sensitivity, low cost and an arbitrary length of capillary, which has broad application prospects for marine survey technology, biological diagnostics and environmental monitoring.

Fiber Optical Temperature Sensor Based on 980nm Excitation of CaWO4: Yb3+, Er3+ with Up-conversion Fluorescence Intensity Ratio

The Yb3+, Er3+ co-doped calcium tungstate materials were prepared. The temperature-sensitive fiber optic probes made from CaWO4:Yb3+, Er3+ were prepared by the high-temperature solid-phase sintering method. The XRD lattice structure of CaWO4: Yb3+, Er3+ was tested. The fluorescence spectra of the probe under 980nm excitation were tested, and the variable temperature profile of the probe was analyzed to derive its two-photon absorption process. The temperature characteristics of the up-conversion fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) of the probe in the temperature range of 303-673K were investigated, and the results showed that this optical fiber probe can be used as a fiber optic temperature sensor with a linearity of 5.8% and a temperature measurement return difference of only 1.5%; it was found that the temperature characteristic curve of FIR of this fiber optic probe was reproducible. These properties show that CaWO4: Yb3+, Er3+ is feasible to be made into a fiber optic sensor.

Optical Fiber Temperature and Humidity Dual Parameter Sensing Based on Fiber Bragg Gratings and Porous Film.

A porous anodic alumina film is proposed to construct an optical fiber temperature and humidity sensor. In the sensor structure, a fiber Bragg grating is used to detect the environment temperature, and the porous film is used to detect the environment humidity. The proposed porous anodic alumina film was fabricated by anodic oxidation reaction, and it is suitable for the use of humidity detection due to its porous structure. Experimental results show the temperature sensitivity of the proposed sensor was 10.4 pm/°C and the humidity sensitivity of the proposed sensor was 185 pm/%RH.

Design of Surface Plasmon Resonance-Based D-Type Double Open-Loop Channels PCF for Temperature Sensing.

Here, we document a D-type double open-loop channel floor plasmon resonance (SPR) photonic crystal fiber (PCF) for temperature sensing. The grooves are designed on the polished surfaces of the pinnacle and backside of the PCF and covered with a gold (Au) film, and stomata are distributed around the PCF core in a progressive, periodic arrangement. Two air holes between the Au membrane and the PCF core are designed to shape a leakage window, which no longer solely averts the outward diffusion of Y-polarized (Y-POL) core mode energy, but also sets off its coupling with the Au movie from the leakage window. This SPR-PCF sensor uses the temperature-sensitive property of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to reap the motive of temperature sensing. Our lookup effects point out that these SPR-PCF sensors have a temperature sensitivity of up to 3757 pm/°C when the temperature varies from 5 °C to 45 °C. In addition, the maximum refractive index sensitivity (RIS) of the SPR-PCF sensor is as excessive as 4847 nm/RIU. These proposed SPR-PCF temperature sensors have an easy nanostructure and proper sensing performance, which now not solely improve the overall sensing performance of small-diameter fiber optic temperature sensors, but also have vast application prospects in geo-logical exploration, biological monitoring, and meteorological prediction due to their remarkable RIS and exclusive nanostructure.

Optical fiber temperature sensor based on beat frequency and Vernier effect of fiber ring resonator composite cavity

A fiber temperature sensing scheme based on beat frequency and Vernier effect of fiber ring resonator (FRR) with composite cavity is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The optical FRR as a sensor is put into the linear cavity fiber laser, and Vernier effect is generated when the resonance spectrum of the optical FRR and the longitudinal mode of the laser are superimposed. The beat frequency envelope spectrum corresponding to the longitudinal mode Vernier spectrum is used to realize fiber ring sensing in electrical domain, and the sensing information is obtained by tracing the envelope of beat frequency signal, which has the advantages of stable system, simple structure, low cost and high sensitivity.

A highly sensitive six-conjoined-tube anti-resonance optical fiber temperature sensor based on surface plasmon resonance

ObjectOwing to advances in optical fiber sensing, sensing techniques based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) have received much attention. In this work, an SPR temperature sensor based on the anti-resonant fiber (ARF) is designed and analyzed. By filling the core with a thermosensitive liquid, the ambient temperature in the range of 5–55 °C can be detected. MethodsThe proposed ARF was simulated utilizing the finite element analysis software COMSOL, followed by systematic and comprehensive structural parameter optimization, and the basic characteristics of the ARF-SPR temperature sensor were analyzed. Filling with a gold medium instead of the traditional coating process reduces the difficulty in manufacturing the ARF-SPR temperature sensor. ResultsThe average temperature sensitivity of the ARF-SPR sensor is 16.055 nm/°C, the minimum structural parameter sensitivity is 1.0 nm/μm, and the maximum FOM is 360.8 °C−1 at 5 °C. The ARF sensor with excellent properties has large commercial potential in biochemical analysis, temperature monitoring, as well as long-distance sensing.

Highly Coupled Seven-Core Fiber for Ratiometric Anti-Phase Sensing.

A ratiometric fiber optic temperature sensor based on a highly coupled seven-core fiber (SCF) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. A theoretical analysis of the SCF's sinusoidal spectral response in transmission configuration is presented. The proposed sensor comprises two SCF devices exhibiting anti-phase transmission spectra. Simple fabrication of the devices is shown by just splicing a segment of a 2 cm long SCF between two single-mode fibers (SMFs). The sensor proved to be robust against light source fluctuations, as a standard deviation of 0.2% was registered in the ratiometric measurements when the light source varied by 12%. Its low-cost detection system (two photodetectors) and the range of temperature detection (25 °C to 400 °C) make it a very attractive and promising device for real industrial applications.

Polymer-coated fiber-optic Fabry-Perot interferometer-based temperature sensor with high sensitivity

In this paper, a highly sensitive temperature sensor based on polymer-coated Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) is proposed and demonstrated. The FPI temperature sensor consists of the end face of single-mode fiber (SMF) and the Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) cap on the end face. By varying the number of coatings, the thickness of the PDMS cap can be flexibly controlled to obtain FPI sensors with different cavity lengths. The temperature sensitivity is studied experimentally from −30 °C to 85 °C, and it is found that the sensor shows different sensitivity in different temperature intervals, up to 0.698 nm/°C. Compared to similarly constructed sensors, the sensor in this paper has a large temperature range while maintaining a high sensitivity. In addition, the performance of the sensor is tested by experiments and the results show that the sensor possesses the advantages of good stability, fast response time and good repeatability.

Highly sensitive fiber-optic temperature sensor based on Lyot filter cascaded with Fabry-Perot interferometer

A highly sensitive fiber-optic temperature sensor based on a Lyot filter cascaded with a Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) is proposed and demonstrated in this study. The FPI consists of a segment of hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (HCPCF) spliced between two single-mode fibers (SMFs), which is insensitive to temperature and strain and is an ideal reference interferometer. The Lyot filter is composed of two polarizers with an uiltra-fine polarization maintaining fiber (UFPMF) of a certain length for temperature sensing. By adjusting the length of the UFPMF, the free spectral range (FSR) of the Lyot filter is close to FPI, resulting in an optical Vernier effect and improved sensitivity. Experimental results show that with the Vernier effect, the temperature sensitivity is enhanced from −1.145 nm/℃ to −59.31 nm/℃, and the sensitivity amplification factor is about 51.8. The proposed sensor with the Vernier effect has good performance in temperature sensing and is suitable for applications fields where high sensitivity temperature measurement is required.

High-sensitivity and fast-response fiber optic temperature sensor using an anti-resonant reflecting optical waveguide mechanism

Temperature sensing is essential for human health monitoring. High-sensitivity (>1 nm/°C) fiber sensors always require long interference paths and temperature-sensitive materials, leading to a long sensor and thus slow response (6–14 s). To date, it is still challenging for a fiber optic temperature sensor to have an ultrafast (∼ms) response simultaneously with high sensitivity. Here, a side-polished single-mode/hollow/single-mode fiber (SP-SHSF) structure is proposed to meet the challenge by using the length-independent sensitivity of an anti-resonant reflecting optical waveguide mechanism. With a polydimethylsiloxane filled sub-nanoliter volume cavity in the SP-SHSF, the SP-SHSF exhibits a high temperature sensitivity of 4.223 nm/°C with a compact length of 1.6 mm, allowing an ultrafast response (16 ms) and fast recovery time (176 ms). The figure of merit (FOM), defined as the absolute ratio of sensitivity to response time, is proposed to assess the comprehensive performance of the sensor. The FOM of the proposed sensor reaches up to 263.94 (nm/°C)/s, which is more than two to three orders of magnitude higher than those of other temperature fiber optic sensors reported previously. Additionally, a three-month cycle test shows that the sensor is highly robust, with excellent reversibility and accuracy, allowing it to be incorporated with a wearable face mask for detecting temperature changes during human breathing. The high FOM and high stability of the proposed sensing fiber structure provide an excellent opportunity to develop both ultrafast and highly sensitive fiber optic sensors for wearable respiratory monitoring and contactless in vitro detection.

Verification of Optical Fiber Multiparameter Sensing Technology for High Temperature Environment

Aiming at the measurement problems such as strain in high temperature environment, this paper builds an optical fiber sensor that is suitable for high temperature environment. A test system platform that can provide a high temperature environment of 1000 °C both dynamic and static strain loading is designed. The platform includes a high-temperature furnace, constant-strength beams and excitation devices. Based on the test system platform, the thermal strain and loading strain tests of the high temperature fiber optic sensor are completed.

Long-range surface plasmon resonance-based hollow fiber temperature sensor with ultrahigh sensitivity and tunable detection range.

A dielectric/Ag-coated hollow fiber (HF) temperature sensor based on long-range surface plasmon resonance (LRSPR) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The structural parameters, including the dielectric material and layer thicknesses, are optimized through comprehensive theoretical analysis to achieve the best performance. By filling it with a high refractive index (RI) thermosensitive liquid, the GK570/Ag-coated HF temperature sensor with optimal structural parameters is fabricated. Due to the high sensitivity of the LRSPR sensor and the optimized design, the fabricated sensor achieves a temperature sensitivity of 3.6∼20.5 nm/°C, which is almost the highest among the optical fiber temperature sensors based on surface plasmon resonance reported experimentally. Moreover, the detection range of the proposed sensor can be easily tuned up to 170°C by varying the RI of the filled thermosensitive liquid, and the sensor performance remains stable. Considering that most temperature sensors using polydimethylsiloxane have a fixed detection range, this is an outstanding advantage that could expand the application field of the optical fiber temperature sensor.

High-sensitivity fiber optic temperature sensor based on CTFBG-FPI and Vernier effect.

A novel high-sensitivity temperature sensor based on a chirped thin-core fiber Bragg grating Fabry-Perot interferometer (CTFBG-FPI) and the Vernier effect is proposed and demonstrated. With femtosecond laser direct writing technology, two CTFBG-FPIs with different interferometric cavity lengths are inscribed inside a thin-core fiber to form a Vernier effect system. The two FPIs consist of two pairs of CTFBGs with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 66.5 nm staggered in parallel. The interferometric cavity lengths of the two FPIs were designed to be 2 mm and 1.98 mm as the reference arm and sensing arm of the sensor, respectively. The temperature sensitivity of this sensor was measured to be -1.084 nm/°C in a range of 40-90°C. This sensor is expected to play a crucial role in precision temperature measurement applications.

Fiber optic sensor for transformer temperature detection

AbstractThe safe and stable operation of the transformer is affected by the internal temperature. Therefore, it is very necessary to accurately and effectively detect the temperature of the transformer winding. To realize the effective detection of the internal temperature of the transformer, a fiber optic temperature sensor based on the structure of multimode fiber (MMF)–no core fiber (NCF)–multimode fiber (MMF) (i.e., MMF–NCF–MMF) is studied. The temperature sensitivity reaches 0.0313 nm/°C. Moreover, to enhance the accuracy of the test, the sensitive material polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is coated on the sensing area (the position of the NCF), and its temperature sensitivity reaches 0.123 nm/°C. By comparison, it was found that the temperature detection sensitivity increased by 3.93 times after coating PDMS. The sensor has the characteristics of simple structure, high sensitivity, and high integration, which provides research and application directions for temperature detection in the field of transformer health detection.

All-fiber temperature and humidity sensor based on photopolymer and polydimethylsiloxane with low-crosstalk and high-sensitivity

The ability to monitor temperature and humidity simultaneously is critical for biomedical and industrial production. We demonstrate a novel temperature and humidity optical fiber sensor based on a photopolymer and polydimethylsiloxane for dealing with temperature cross-sensitivity problem. The low-frequency signal and the high-frequency signal in the interference spectrum were obtained by filtering. Due to structural and material properties, the low-frequency signal is only temperature dependent, while the high-frequency signal is affected by temperature and humidity. Temperature and humidity signals rely on different interferometric mechanisms for measurement to achieve negligible crosstalk. The sensor exhibits a high temperature sensitivity of 1.88 nm/°C by measuring the shift of an interference dip wavelength in the low-frequency signal. The humidity sensitivity is up to 0.282 nm/%RH due to the excellent water absorption capacity of the photopolymer. High accuracy, good repeatability, and stability enable the sensor to measure ambient temperature and humidity. We believe the sensor has excellent potential in environmental monitoring, biomedicine, and human–machine interface.

Distributed Temperature Sensor Calibration Algorithm

The paper considers various calibrating algorithm approaches of a distributed fiber-optic temperature sensor in order to modify the two-point calibration algorithm and improve the accuracy of converting a reflectogram into a thermogram. As a modification, it is proposed to use an additional feature of the original signal based on its first derivative. A scheme for constructing a generalized heuristic calibration formula that takes into account multiple features of the reflectogram is proposed. The accuracy of the two-point and modified (three-point) algorithms was evaluated on thermostated regions of the optical line. It is shown that the modified calibration algorithm makes it possible to achieve greater accuracy compared to the two-point one. So, for the region thermostated at –50 °C, the standard deviation for the modified algorithm is 0.08 °C, for the two-point algorithm 0.26 °C.

Breakthrough the physical barrier on spatial resolution in Raman distributed fiber sensing using chaotic correlation demodulation

Raman distributed optical fiber temperature sensors possess the unique capability of measuring spatial environmental temperatures, which can be of great interest in several fields of application. The key physics barrier to spatial resolution for most optical time-domain reflection (OTDR) systems is the positioning principle of pulse-time-flight. It obtains the spatial resolution of the existing Raman distributed optical fiber temperature sensor, with the kilometer-level sensing distance being limited to the meter-level. Here, we propose a chaotic laser Raman distributed optical fiber temperature sensing scheme that replaces the traditional OTDR positioning principle used for more than 40 years with the chaotic correlation positioning principle. The proposed scheme possesses the characteristics of the chaos Raman scattering light excited by the chaos signal along the sensing fiber. A novel measurement mechanism based on chaotic time-domain differential reconstruction and chaotic correlation demodulation is developed, and a relationship between the temperature variation information and the chaotic correlation peak is experimentally demonstrated. Importantly, the proposed optics mechanism scheme overcomes the physics limitation of the effect of a wide pulse width on sensing spatial resolution; its spatial resolution is optimized from 50 to 0.3 m under the modulation of a 500 ns pulse width. This scheme provides a new concept for chaos optics and fiber sensing research.

Highly sensitive temperature and strain sensor based on polarization mode interferometer with Vernier effect

A new cascaded optical fiber temperature and strain sensor based on polarization mode interferometer (PMI) and Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. The PMI made by fusion splicing a segment of polarization maintaining fiber (PMF) after a polarizer is used as a sensing interferometer. Integrating a FPI as a reference interferometer cascaded after the PMI to generate the Vernier effect and improve sensitivity. The FPI is made from a small segment of hollow core photonic crystal fiber (HCPCF), which is fusion spliced to PMF and multi-mode fiber (MMF) at each end to form two reflective surfaces of FPI. Based on numerical simulations, a suitable free spectral range (FSR) of the sensor is produced. Experimental results show that the temperature sensitivity can be improved from −1.095 nm/℃ to −22.753 nm/℃ and the strain sensitivity can be improved from 2.17 pm/με to 38.89 pm/με by using the Vernier effect. The measured amplification factors are about 21 and 18,respectively. The high sensitivity of PMI and FPI cascaded sensors with the Vernier effect offers a new option for simultaneous measurements in the field of temperature and strain.

An optical fiber temperature sensor based on fluorescence intensity ratio in Er3+/Yb3+ co-doped Gd2O3 phosphors

A simple optical fiber temperature sensing system based on up-conversion luminescence of Er3+/Yb3+ co-doped Gd2O3 phosphors is proposed and demonstrated for the first time. The Gd2O3: 1 mol% Er3+, 1 mol% Yb3+ phosphors are synthesized by traditional sol-gel method. A sandwich structure fabricated by two fiber connectors, one of which is deposited the fluorescent material cured with ultraviolet adhesive on the surface, is used as the sensing probe. Temperature measurement is achieved using the two green emissions, generated by Gd2O3: 1 mol% Er3+, 1 mol% Yb3+ phosphors, based on the fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) technique. When the Gd2O3: 1 mol% Er3+, 1 mol% Yb3+ phosphor is excited by the 980 nm laser with the output power of 73 mW, the intense green emissions are observed and change with temperature. The temperature sensing characteristics are experimentally studied in the temperature range from 253 to 413 K, with the maximum absolute sensitivity of 4.15% K−1 at 413 K, the maximum relative sensitivity of 2.28% K−1 at 253 K and the maximum relative error of 0.43%. The proposed optical fiber temperature sensor not only offers excellent reversibility and stability, but also significantly contributes to accurate and remote temperature measurement in harsh environments.

Toward local core outlet temperature monitoring in gas-cooled nuclear reactors using distributed fiber-optic temperature sensors

Gas-cooled nuclear reactors operate at temperatures up to 950 ℃ with significant spatial variations in power generation and coolant flow through hundreds of parallel flow channels, resulting in complex mixing at the core outlet. The high temperatures and complex mixing can damage downstream components, challenge reactor calorimetry for power determination, and result in significant conservatism in calculated peak fuel temperatures, which ultimately limits the total power output. Directly measuring each gas stream individually is unrealistic using single point thermocouples, requiring more robust sensing techniques. Fiber-optic sensors are resilient to high temperatures (up to 1,000 ℃) and radiation damage. Moreover, distributed measurements can be made along the length of one fiber, making them potential candidates for monitoring local core outlet temperatures to improve core calorimetry and identify hot channels. To the authors’ knowledge, this manuscript is the first to report spatially distributed fiber optic temperature measurements to quantify mixing at the outlet of a relevant orifice plate under prototypic temperature and flow regimes to assess the feasibility of using fiber-optic sensors for distributed measurements of coolant temperature in gas-cooled reactors. A single optical fiber captured dynamic changes in local temperatures, whereas the mixed outlet temperature exhibited a muted response and could not identify which channels were responsible for the change in the mixed outlet temperature. The discussion focuses on potential challenges for deploying distributed optical fibers in gas-cooled reactors, including the effects of vibrations, radiation-induced signal attenuation and drift, and routing of the fiber while minimizing flow obstructions.