Measurement of Temperature, Refractive Index, or Axial Acceleration with Etched PCF Microfiber Structure

Abstract

In the field of optical fiber sensors, one of the most versatile structures is the Fabry-Perot interferometer. This thesis will present a novel sensor based on an Intrisnic Fabry-Perot Inferferometer (IFPI) cavity to measure axial acceleration, refractive index, and temperature. The sensor structure is based on previous work done by R. Wang at the Center for Photonics Technology. This work suggests its flexibility in many different roles with a sensitivity to axial acceleration of 70 pm/unit of acceleration, to refractive index of 60 nm/Refractive Index Unit, and to temperature of 7.8 pm/°C. Future work is also discussed in measuring tangential acceleration with direction using a PM fiber as the lead-in and observing the reflections on the slow and fast axes.