Optical Magnetic Field Sensor Research Articles

A modal interferometer based on single mode fiber-hollow core fiber-single mode fiber structure filled with alcohol and magnetic fluid for simultaneously measuring magnetic field and temperature

In many fields, such as aerospace and marine environmental monitoring, magnetic field measurement is an important link. In recent years, optical fiber magnetic field sensor has received much attention because of its advantages such as small size, electromagnetic immunity, resistance to erosion and capability of remote sensing. In that case, magnetic fluid as a kind of medium between photons and magnetic field is widely used in optical fiber magnetic field sensors. Moreover, in the process of magnetic field measurement, disturbance introduced by temperature fluctuation always happens and brings uncertainty to the sensor. Temperature is also an important parameter in production process and needs to be measured. Therefore, designing a high-sensitive optical fiber sensor for simultaneously measuring magnetic field and temperature is a valuable work. In this paper, we present a high-sensitive hollow core fiber (HCF) interferometer for simultaneously measuring magnetic field and temperature. A segment of HCF filled with alcohol is inserted into single mode fiber (SMF) with 50 m offset at two splicing joints to guide light into the wall of HCF. And then this SMF-HCF-SMF structure is packaged by a capillary tube with full magnetic fluid (MF) inside it. Since the modal field area is large enough, the silica wall can support a series of guiding modes among which modal interference occurs and the interference spectrum can be recorded by an optical spectrum analyzer. Besides thermo-optic effect and thermal expansion effect of silica itself, the RI variations caused by thermo-optic effect of alcohol and MF as well as the magneto-optic effect of MF can also cause the phase difference of the guiding modes to change, thereby rendering interference dips movable. Thus, the sensitivity of temperature or magnetic field is higher than those given in some other previous studies. In addition, it is calculated that the effective RI sensitivities of guiding modes for inside and outside liquid are different because of the peculiar non-circular symmetry structure of HCF. So there is a possibility to find two dips in interference spectrum, which are formed with different modes and have various sensitivities to the variations of temperature and magnetic field. Finally, a sensitivity matrix can be built to demodulate those two parameters simultaneously. Experimental results show that within 20-58℃, the temperature sensitivities are 112 pm/℃ and 468 pm/℃ for dip1 and dip 2 whose magnetic field sensitivities are 37 pm/Oe and 82 pm/Oe within 0-169 Oe, respectively. The proposed sensor possesses high sensitivity and good mechanical strength, and can effectively eliminate the cross disturbances between temperature and magnetic field.

Optical fiber magnetic field sensor based on multi-mode fiber and core-offset structure

A magnetic field sensor based on a magnetic fluid (MF)-coated intermodal interferometer is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. It is fabricated by a core-offset structure between two segments of multi-mode fibres (MMF), a spherical structure is formed in the end of the second segment MMF. The core-offset section can be used to excite the core mode to the cladding, then the core and cladding modes will interference at the spherical structure due to the optical path difference caused by the refractive index difference. Two interference valleys of the interferometer integrated with MF under different magnetic field intensities have been experimentally analysed. The experimental results exhibit that the sensor possesses a magnetic field sensitivity of −0.187 nm/mT by monitoring the wavelength shift at the magnetic field intensity from 0 to 20mT, and the optical power attenuation at specific wavelength with a magnetic field has a maximum sensitivity of 0.228 dB/mT.

Optical fiber magnetic field sensors with peanut-shape structure cascaded with LPFG

An optical fiber magnetic field sensor for the dual-parameter simultaneous measurement is proposed and demonstrated. The sensor head is constructed by a peanut-shape structure and long period fiber grating (LPFG) coated by magnetic fluid (MF). The external magnetic field intensity can be measured by the variation of characteristic wavelength (Dip1 and Dip2) in interference spectrum since the effective refractive index of MF changes with external magnetic field intensity. When the external magnetic field intensity changes from 0 mT to 20 mT, the magnetic field sensitivities of Dip1 and Dip2 are −0.064 nm/mT and −0.041 nm/mT, respectively. Experimental results show that the temperature sensitivities of the Dip1 and Dip2 are 0.233 nm/°C and 0.186 nm/°C, respectively. Therefore, the simultaneous measurement of the magnetic field intensity and temperature is demonstrated based on the sensitive matrix. It has some potential applications in aerospace, environmental monitoring and medical sensing fields.

Magnetic Field Measurement Based on the Sagnac Interferometer With a Ferrofluid-Filled High-Birefringence Photonic Crystal Fiber

A compact optical fiber magnetic field sensor based on the principle of the Sagnac interferometer is proposed. Different from the conventional ones, a ferrofluid-filled high-birefringence photonic crystal fiber (HB-PCF) is inserted into the Sagnac as a magnetic field sensing element. The refractive index of the ferrofluid filled in the cladding air holes of the HB-PCF will change with respect to the applied magnetic field, and subsequently, the birefringence of the HB-PCF will change, which will affect the shifts of the output interference spectrum in Sagnac. Experiments are carried out to verify the simulation model and the results indicate that the interference spectrum exhibits a red shift with the increment in the magnetic field intensity. The sensitivity of the proposed sensor is up to 0.073 nm/mT for a magnetic field intensity ranging from 10 to 40 mT, while the resolution is 0.001 mT. The proposed magnetic field sensor is attractive due to its compact size, low cost, and immunity to electromagnetic interference beyond what conventional magnetic field sensors can offer.

Magnetic field fiber sensor based on the magneto-birefringence effect of magnetic fluid

In this study, the magneto-birefringence effect of magnetic fluid (MF) is adopted to form an innovative fiber optic magnetic field sensor. The sensitive section is fabricated via a D-shaped microstructure inscribed in a high-birefringence fiber Sagnac loop with a femtosecond laser. The D-shaped microstructure facilitates good combination of the optical-fiber Sagnac interferometer with the magneto-birefringence effect of MF without suffering from absorption loss and manual alignment. Experimental results show the good performance of the magnetic field fiver sensor, particularly its high stable extinction ratio. Preliminary results are provided, and the magnetic field sensitivity of 0.0823nm/mT can be further improved by increasing the depth and length of the D-shaped microstructure.

A Notched Long-Period Fiber Grating Magnetic Field Sensor Based on Nanoparticle Magnetic Fluid

In this paper, we propose using an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching technique to fabricate a notched long-period fiber grating (NLPFG) for magnetic sensing application. An optical fiber magnetic field sensor based on NLPFG filled with nanoparticle magnetic fluid is proposed and demonstrated. The magnetic fluid nanoparticles were attached on the grating structure section and used as a magneto-optical sensing layer to measure magnetic flux density. The external applied magnetic flux density ranged from 0 to 27.74 mT. As the magnetic flux density was increased, the spectra of the NLPFG were changed. The resonant wavelength of the attenuation band did not shift obviously, but the transmission loss of the resonant dip was increased by 3.48 dB from −19.41 dB to −15.93 dB. The experimental results indicated that the sensitivity of the sensor is approximately 0.125 dB/mT.

Magnetic Field Sensor Based on Microfiber Sagnac Loop Interferometer and Ferrofluid

We demonstrate a novel compact optical magnetic field sensor composed of a single-mode microfiber sagnac loop interferometer (SMSLI) and ferrofluid (FF). The refractive index of FF cladding in the twist area of SMSLI is changed with the externally applied magnetic field, which makes the dip-wavelength of the SMSLI transmission spectra shift. The experimental results show that the transmission spectrum of the proposed sensor shifts regularly with the change of externally applied magnetic field intensity. When the magnetic field intensity increased from 0 to 600 Oe, the dip-wavelength of transmission spectrum shifted nearly 200 pm. In addition, a minimal detectable magnetic field strength of the sensor responding to the 50-Hz alternating magnetic field was demonstrated to be $\sim 3$ Oe experimentally.

An optical fiber magnetic field sensor based on fiber spherical structure interferometer coated by magnetic fluid

A novel magnetic field sensor based on optical fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) coated by magnetic fluid (MF) is proposed. The MZI consists of two spherical structures formed on standard single mode fiber (SMF). The interference wavelength and the power of the sensing structure are sensitive to the external refractive index (RI). Since RI of the MF is sensitive to the magnetic field, the magnetic field measurement can be realized by detecting the variation of the interference spectrum. Experimental results show that the wavelength and the power of interference dip both increase with the increase of magnetic field intensity.

An Optical Microfiber Taper Magnetic Field Sensor With Temperature Compensation

We proposed an optical magnetic field sensor with the temperature correction capability, which is based on an optical microfiber taper (OMT) integrated with magnetic fluid. The OMT is fabricated simply by fused tapering and then sealed into a capillary tube filled with magnetic fluid. The sensor is highly sensitive to magnetic field with the sensitivity of 0.171 nm/Oe in the range of 20–70 Oe at room temperature 25 °C. Moreover, there is a linear relationship between the wavelength shift and temperature in the range of 30 °C–80 °C, and a sensitivity of −0.587 nm/°C has been achieved. Based on these experiments, we provided a sensitivity matrix to correct the errors caused by temperature in order to measure magnetic field more accurately.

Optical fiber magnetic field sensor based on cascaded down-taper and spherical structure

An optical fiber magnetic field sensor using intermodal interferometer coated by magnetic fluid (MF) is proposed. The interferometer consists of down-taper and spherical structure formed on the standard single-mode fiber (SMF) by a fusion splicer. Since the refractive index (RI) of the MF is sensitive to external magnetic field, the interferometer coated by MF can be used for magnetic field sensing. Two interference valleys of the interferometer integrated with ferrofluid under different magnetic field intensities have been experimentally analyzed. The experimental results show that there is a linear relationship between the valley wavelength shift and magnetic field intensity for a range of 0 to 20 mT, and the maximum sensitivity reaches up to −0.195 nm/mT. In the range of 0 to 12 mT, the variation of transmission loss at valley wavelength with a magnetic field has a maximum sensitivity of 0.106 dB/mT.

All fiber magnetic field sensor with Ferrofluid-filled tapered microstructured optical fiber interferometer.

An ultra-compact optical fiber magnetic field sensor based on a microstructured optical fiber (MOF) modal interference and ferrofluid (FF) has been proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The magnetic field sensor was fabricated by splicing a tapered germanium-doped index guided MOF with six big holes injected with FF to two conventional single-mode fibers. The transmission spectra of the proposed sensor under different magnetic field intensities have been measured and theoretically analyzed. Due to an efficient interaction between the magnetic nanoparticles in FF and the excited cladding mode, the magnetic field sensitivity reaches up to117.9pm/mT with a linear range from 0mT to 30mT. Moreover, the fabrication process of the proposed sensor is simple, easy and cost-effective. Therefore, it will be a promising candidate for military, aviation industry, and biomedical applications, especially, for the applications where the space is limited.

Magnetic field sensor based on magnetic-fluid-coated long-period fiber grating

Magnetic fluid is a promising material for sensing applications due to its remarkable magneto-optic properties. An optical fiber magnetic field sensor was developed using a long-period grating (LPG) coated with magnetic fluid. Magnetic fluid undergoes magnetization, aggregation, and phase transitions when it is under an external magnetic field. Optical properties changes that induced by the magnetic field can be sensed by the LPG of which resonant wavelength and transmission minimum are highly sensitive to the change of ambient medium. We demonstrate that the proposed sensor can maintain a high sensitivity of ∼0.154 dB/Gauss at field strength of as low as ∼7.4 Gauss.

Magnetic field and temperature sensor based on a no-core fiber combined with a fiber Bragg grating

An optical fiber magnetic field sensor based on the no-core fiber (NCF) and magnetic fluid (MF) is proposed and demonstrated. By using the temperature sensing property of fiber Bragg grating (FBG), the magnetic field sensor with dynamic temperature compensation can be achieved. The transmittance of the NCF that is sealed in a capillary with MF is highly sensitive to the surrounding magnetic field. Experimental results show that the sensor has the magnetic field sensitivity of 9.2 pm/mT ranging from 0 to 9 mT and the temperature sensitivity of 11.9 pm/°C ranging from 15 to 45 °C. The prototype might be attractive due to its low fabrication cost and simple configuration, which are desirable features in magnetic field measurement.

Dynamics and polarization of conventional and spin-VCSELs in the presence of an axial magnetic field

The spin flip model is used to investigate the effects of an axial magnetic field on the polarization and dynamics of conventional vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) and spin-VCSELs where polarized optical pumping is used to inject a spin-polarized electron population. It is found that the ratio of the circular birefringence caused by the magnetic field to the intrinsic linear birefringence plays an important role in exciting oscillations in the intensities and polarization of the VCSELs studied. For a conventional VCSEL, higher values of the linear birefringence require larger axial magnetic fields to cause output power and polarization oscillations. In the case of spin-VCSELs, it is found that both magnitude and sign of the magnetic field can affect the stability and dynamics, as represented on maps in the plane of polarization ellipticity versus magnitude of the pump. A reversal in the sign of the field is equivalent to reversing the sign of the pump ellipticity. Potential applications of these effects in terms of optical oscillators and magnetic field sensors are identified.

Loss-Based Magnetic Field Sensor Employing Hollow Core Fiber and Magnetic Fluid

An inline optical fiber magnetic field sensor based on hollow core fiber (HCF) wall integrated with magnetic fluid tuned by magnetic field was proposed by sandwiching a length of HCF between two single mode fibers with offset joints. Intermodal interference is present in the HCF wall, mode propagation, as well as mode field distribution within the HCF wall have been simulated, and the contrast ratio of the interference fringes in response to the variation of the applied magnetic field has been theoretically analyzed and experimentally observed. The maximum sensing sensitivity of -0.02173 dB/Oe within the linear magnetic intensity range from 150 to 300 Oe has been achieved.

Optical fiber magnetic field sensor based on magnetic fluid and microfiber mode interferometer

A magnetic field sensor is proposed based on the combination of magnetic fluid (MF) and an optical microfiber mode interferometer (MMI). It is measured that the MMI is highly sensitive to ambient refractive index (RI) with a high sensitivity up to 16,539nm/RIU while RI of the MF is changeable with an external magnetic field strength. By monitoring wavelength shift of transmission spectrum of the MMI, magnetic field measurement is realized with a maximum sensitivity of −293pm/Oe in the range of 0–220Oe.

Magnetic Field Sensor With Optical Fiber Bitaper-Based Interferometer Coated by Magnetic Fluid

An optical fiber magnetic field sensor is demonstrated using a waist-enlarged fusion bitaper-based optical fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) coated by magnetic fluid (MF). Since refractive index (RI) of the MF is sensitive to magnetic field, differential effective RI of the sensing fiber and hence transmission spectrum of the MZI are modulated. In addition, structural pattern state of the nanoscaled magnetic particles in the MF changes with magnetic field strength, leading to variation in contrast of the interference pattern through scattering-induced loss of the cladding modes, which interfere with the core mode. By monitoring wavelength shift or intensity change of a transmission dip of the MF-coated MZI, magnetic field strength measurement is realized with sensitivity up to -24 pm/Oe or 0.085 dB/Oe for wavelength and intensity measurements, respectively.

Fiber optic magnetic field sensor based on the TbDyFe rod

We present, and experimentally demonstrate, a fiber optic magnetic field sensor for the measurement of a weak alternating magnetic field, based on a TbDyFe rod. The fiber optic magnetic field sensor is constructed in a Michelson interferometer configuration, and the phase-generated carrier demodulation is used to obtain the time-varying phase shift induced by the applied magnetic field. A high sensitivity of up to 3.6 × 10–2 V μT − 1 (rms) with a resolution of 23 pT/√Hz (rms) at 50 Hz is achieved. Experimental results show that the sensor exhibits excellent linearity and reversibility.

U-bent single-mode–multimode–single-mode fiber optic magnetic field sensor based on magnetic fluid

A magnetic field sensor based on a U-bent single-mode–multimode–single-mode (SMS) fiber structure and magnetic fluid (MF) is presented and demonstrated experimentally. The U-bent and straight sensors are compared, and the influence of the diameter of the no-core fiber (NCF) on the sensitivity of the U-bent sensor is investigated. The experimental results show that the sensitivity of the sensor can be improved by bending the NCF and decreasing the NCF diameter. The following magnetic field sensitivities have been achieved: 3185.2 pm/mT and 5.6 dB/mT, based on dip wavelength and transmission loss demodulations, respectively.

CS Optical Pumping Magnetic Sensor Spectrum Lamp Drive Circuit Design Based on PI Feedback Controller

The optical source is one of the key components for the optical pump magnetic field sensor, its spectral width, stability and emission intensity directly related to the sensitivity of the sensor. The CS Spectral Lamp drive signal source was produced by crystal oscillator and amplified by the power controllable RF power amplifier. For achieving the aim of luminous intensity controllable and more stability, the reference controllable analog PI negative feedback control measures were used in the drive circuit. Contrast experimental result show that: the emission intensity of CS spectrum lamp is more stable and less affected by temperature if using the drive circuit which discussed in this paper.