Highly Sensitive Fiber Optic Refractive Index Sensor Using Multicore Coupled Structures

Keywords

Biological applications; fiber optic sensor; high sensitivity; multicore coupled structures; refractive index sensing

Abstract

In this paper, we demonstrate highly sensitive refractive index (RI) sensing based on multicore coupled structures. Specifically, we use a seven-core fiber (SCF) as the sensing element. The interaction of the SCF and its surroundings is induced by controllably etching material from the cladding in order to expose its external cores. Thus, the sensor sensitivity can be tuned by simply controlling the etching depth. In our case, the cladding of a 10-mm-long piece of SCF, spliced between two single-mode fibers, was slowly removed until the remaining cladding around the external cores is only 2.5 μm. Sensitivity on the order of 1 × 104 nm/RIU is experimentally demonstrated. These sensing architectures are compact, all-fiber, simple to fabricate, and highly sensitive. Based on our results RI changes of 10-4-10-5 can be resolved with standard laboratory-graded equipment, which opens the possibility of using this type of sensing architectures in biological applications.

Publication Date

7-1-2017

Publication Title

Journal of Lightwave Technology

Volume

35

Issue

13

Number of Pages

2695-2701

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1109/JLT.2017.2699619

Socpus ID

85028699566 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85028699566

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