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We describe the fabrication bi-tapered optical fiber sensors designed for shorter wavelength operation and we study their optical properties. The new sensing system designed and built for the project is a specialty optical fiber that is single-mode in the visible/near infrared wavelength region of interest. In fabricating the tapered fiber we control the taper parameters, such as the down-taper and up-taper rate, shape and length, and the fiber waist diameter and length. The sensing is mode is via the electromagnetic field, which is evanescent outside the optical fiber and is confined close to the fiber’s surface (within a couple hundred nanometers). The fiber sensor system has multiple advantages as a compact, simple device with an ability to detected tiny changes in the refractive index. We developed a supercontinuum light source to provide a wide spectral wavelength range from visible to near IR. The source design was based on coupling light from a femtosecond laser in a photonic crystal fiber designed for high nonlinearity. The output light was efficiently coupled into the bi-tapered fiber sensor and good signal to noise was achieved across the wavelength region. The bi-tapered fiber starts and ends with a single mode fiber in the waist region there are many modes with different propagation constants that couple to the environment outside the fiber. The signals have a strong periodic component as the wavelength is scanned; we exploit the periodicity in the signal using a discrete Fourier transform analysis to correlate signal phase changes with the refractive index changes in the local environment. For small index changes we also measure a strong correlation with the dominant Fourier amplitude component. Our experiments show that our phase-based signal processing technique works well at shorter wavelengths and we extract a new feature, the Fourier amplitude, to measure the refractive index difference.We conducted experiments using aqueous medium with controlled refractive index, such as water-glycerol mixtures. We find sensitivity to changes in the refractive index close to 0.00002 in so-called Refractive Index Units (RIUs). That is smaller than reported in recent literature, but by no means a limiting value. The technique is not limited to aqueous solutions surrounding the fiber, but it can also be adapted to study volatile organic compounds. Future improvements in the fiber sensing system are discussed, including adding thin films to the surface for label-free detection and to draw the electromagnetic field to the fiber’s surface.

The advent of new optical fibre technologies in recent years have revolutionized the telecommunications and sensing field. In particular the rapid development of microstructured fiber, also known as photonic crystal fiber (PCF), brings about remarkable features such as air guided mechanism, unique geometric structure and single material fibre structure that could overcome many limitations intrinsic to conventional standard optical fibers. This thesis reports my research and original results from the development and application of microstuctured fibre as fiber humidity sensors. My work covers the design and fabrication of the PCF-based sensors, development of experimental systems with related data generation and acquisition capabilities, novel sensing schemes and techniques as well as proof of concept experiments. I proposed and experimentally demonstrated several novel fibre humidity sensor schemes which do not require coating of any hygroscopic or sensitive film while most of previous reported fiber humidity sensors need the hygroscopic films to sense humidity. I also proposed and demonstrated a microstructured optical fibre based humidity sensor for respiration monitoring for possible application of PCF-based fiber sensors in the bio-medical engineering field.

Optical waves propagation in various types of volume gratings, materials with constant impendence and optical fibers are studied. Instability of cross–phase modulation and of Energy transfer via GRON-type (Grating-type Orientational Nonlinearity in Liquid Crystal) Stimulated Scattering is numerically observed. Two diffractive optical elements made of volume gratings are suggested and analyzed. A transmission hologram based on the analogy with Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP) in nonlinear optics is proposed. This transmission hologram demonstrates high diffraction efficiency and low sensitivity to polarization and hologram strength. The other is a reflection hologram with two crossed-gratings. It features good angular selectivity in comparison with the poor angular selectivity of conventional Bragg grating mirror. This defense also contains the approximation of Maxwell equations for the description of depolarized light sources and polarization-insensitive detectors. A scalar wave equation, Z-Helmholtz equation, is proposed and discussed in the approximation of constant impedance media. As examples, this equation successfully describes a) Fresnel transmission coefficient, and b) Goose-Hanschen shift in total internal reflection, for depolarized incident light and, at the same time, polarization-insensitive detectors. Evolution of polarization during light propagation in an inhomogeneous locally isotropic medium, and also in a single-mode fiber is described by Rytov's non-rotation equation. With arbitrary chosen real unit vector, the complete description of polarization change can be described in a single rotation angle obtained from the integral of rotation rate. Based on introduction of this reference frame, a device is suggested as rigid body's rotation sensor due to polarization change in a twisted fiber.