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A highly sensitivity balloon-like fiber interferometer based on ethanol coating is presented in this paper. The Mach–Zehnder interferometer is formed by bending a single-mode fiber to a balloon-like structure and nested in the Teflon tube. Then, an ethanol solution was filled into the tube of the balloon-like fiber interferometer by the capillary effect. Due to the high sensitivity of the refractive index (RI) of ethanol solutions to temperature, when the external temperature varies, the optical path difference changes. The change in temperature can be detected by the shift in the interference spectrum. Limited by the size of the balloon-like structure, three kinds of these structures with different sensitive lengths were prepared to select the best parameters. The sensitive lengths were 10, 15 and 20 mm, respectively, and the RI detection performance of each structure in 10~26% NaCl solutions was investigated experimentally. The results show that when the sensitive length is 20 mm, the RI sensitivity of the sensor is the highest, which is 212.88 nm/RIU. Ultimately, the sensitive length filled with ethanol is 20 mm. The experimental results show that the temperature sensitivity of the structure is 1.145 nm/°C in the range of 28.1 °C~35 °C, which is 10.3 times higher than that of an unfilled balloon-like structure (0.111 nm/°C). The system has the advantages of low cost and easy fabrication, which can potentially be used in high-precision temperature monitoring processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A distributed optical fiber refractive index sensor based on etched Ge-doped SMF in optical frequency domain reflection (OFDR) was proposed and demonstrated. The etched Ge-doped SMF was obtained by only using wet-etching, i.e., hydrofluoric acid solution. The distributed refractive index sensing is achieved by measuring the spectral shift of the local RBS spectra using OFDR. The sensing length of 10 cm and the spatial resolution of 5.25 mm are achieved in the experiment. The refractive index sensing range is as wide as 1.33–1.44 refractive index units (RIU), where the average sensitivity was about 757 GHz/RIU. Moreover, the maximum sensitivity of 2396.9 GHZ/RIU is obtained between 1.43 and 1.44 RIU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An all-fiber glucose sensor is proposed and demonstrated based on a helical intermediate-period fiber grating (HIPFG) produced by using a hydrogen/oxygen flame heating method. The HIPFG, with a grating length of 1.7 cm and a period of 35 μm, presents four sets of double dips with low insertion losses and strong coupling strengths in the transmission spectrum. The HIPFG possesses an averaged refractive index (RI) sensitivity of 213.6 nm/RIU nm/RIU in the RI range of 1.33–1.36 and a highest RI sensitivity of 472 nm/RIU at RI of 1.395. In addition, the HIPFG is demonstrated with a low-temperature sensitivity of 3.67 pm/°C, which promises a self-temperature compensation in glucose detection. In the glucose-sensing test, the HIPFG sensor manifests a detection sensitivity of 0.026 nm/(mg/mL) and a limit of detection (LOD) of 1 mg/mL. Moreover, the HIPFG sensor exhibits good stability in 2 h, indicating its capacity for long-time detection. The properties of easy fabrication, high flexibility, insensitivity to temperature, and good stability of the proposed HIPFG endow it with a promising potential for long-term and compact biosensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we demonstrate a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) with a wide range and a comb with continuous cladding mode resonances inscribed in non-photosensitive single mode fibers using a femtosecond laser and a phase mask. The FBG is inscribed in the core and cladding, exciting a series of cladding modes in transmission. The birefringence induced by this FBG structure offers significant polarization-dependence for cladding modes, thus allowing the vector fiber twist to be perceived. By measuring the peak-to-peak differential intensity of orthogonally polarized cladding mode resonances, the proposed sensor presents totally opposite intensity response in the anticlockwise direction for the torsion angle ranging from −45° to 45°. The cladding mode comb approximately covers wavelengths over the O-, E-, S-, and C-bands in transmission. The cutoff cladding mode of air can be observed in the spectrum. Thus, the sensible refractive index range is estimated to be from 1.00 to 1.44. Temperature responsivity of the grating is also characterized. The proposed device potentially provides new solutions to the various challenges of physical vector and bio-chemical parameters sensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high sensitivity fiber-optic sensor based on self-imaging effect in a hollow-core capillary waveguide (HCCW) is presented for sensing applications. The sensor is composed of a section of HCCW fusion spliced between single mode fibers (SMFs). The self-imaging effect in the HCCW is investigated with different fiber lengths and arc-fusion parameters. By infiltrating the hollow core with index matching liquids, the peak wavelength of the proposed device shifts towards longer wavelengths. The temperature and refractive index (RI) responses of the sensor are studied systematically. When temperature is increased from 25 °C to 75 °C, the temperature sensitivity of the device can be improved significantly with the infiltrated structure, and reaches −0.49 nm/°C, compared with that of the un-filled device, which is 9.8 pm/°C. For the RI response, the liquid-filled structure achieves sensitivity of 12,005 nm/RIU in the range between 1.448 and 1.450, slightly higher than the 11,920 nm/RIU achieved by the un-filled one. The proposed sensor exhibits the advantages of simple structure, high sensitivity and low cost, which may find potential applications in physical and chemical sensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A highly sensitive temperature sensor based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of a side-polished single mode fiber is demonstrated. The sensor consists of a gold film coated side-polished fiber covered by a layer of UV-curable adhesive. Before introducing the UV-curable adhesive, the gold-coated fiber exhibits refractive index (RI) sensitivity of 1691.6 nm/RIU to 8800 nm/RIU in the range of 1.32 to 1.43. The resonant wavelength of the SPR sensor shifts to 650 nm when the adhesive is coated on the gold film, and is fixed at about 725 nm when the adhesive is cured. Due to the high thermo-optic and thermal expansion coefficient of the adhesive, the sensor structure achieves a temperature sensitivity of −0.978 nm/°C between 25 °C and 100 °C. The proposed optical fiber SPR sensor is simple, highly sensitive and cost effective, which may find potential applications for temperature measurements in the biomedical and environmental industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]