Terfenol based optical phase modulator and magnetometer

Abstract

Two new fiber optic magnetostrictive phase modulators and magnetometers using the highly magnetostrictive rare-earth iron compound Tb_xDy_l-xFe₂ are investigated. They demonstrated to have a high sensitivity, dynamic range, minimum field detectability, and a better structural suitability than metallic glasses. For the first sensor, the experimental linear phase shifting coefficient was 1.102 rad/Vp-m with the corresponding phase shift nonnalized to the magnetic field of 0.306 radiO-m. For the second sensor, the experimental linear phase shifting coefficient was 0.5 rad/Vp-m with the corresponding phase shift nonnalized to the magnetic field of 0.136 rad/G-m. A minimum detectable phase shift of better than 1 μrad was obtained, which corresponds to 2 μG/m for a 4 Hz bandwidth and 1 μG/â HZ per meter of fiber interaction length. The projected minimum detectable magnetic field for 30 meters, for the first sensor, is thus seen to be 3pT/â HZ. The experimental results presented have clearly demonstrated the utility of the Terfenol based magnetostrictive fiber optic phase modulator and magnetometer.