Dual-Parameter Optical Fiber Probe Based on a Three-Beam Fabry-Perot Interferometer

Dual parameter detection without cross-sensitivity is a commonly important need but challenging, as most fiber detection components have a single sensitive mechanism. In this article, an optical fiber probe based on a three-beam Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) for temperature and refractive index (RI) measurement was proposed and experimentally realized. Theoretically, such structure has three reflective surfaces, forming three FPIs, and can obtain a hybrid sensing mechanism: wavelength-sensitive to temperature and intensity-sensitive to RI. Experimentally, the chemical etching method was used to form a concave in the fiber tip. Fused together with another section of un-etched fiber, an air bubble can be formed inside the fiber. Then, a cleavage near the bubble can shape the three-beam FPI. Using the fast Fourier Transform, the first-order spatial frequency is corresponding to the air-FPI, and the ratio of the second-order spatial frequency to first-order spatial frequency can describe how many smaller interference periods have been created within one original period due to the cleavage. The test temperature range is 30-40°C with a step of 2°C. The band pass filtering method was used to analyze different frequency components. Experimental results validate that the silica-FP was dominate for temperature sensing, and the average temperature sensitivity was 8.97 pm/°C with repeated linearity over 0.95. The test RI range was 1.3333-1.3908, and average RI sensitivity was 10.05 dB/RIU with repeated linearity over 0.92. Therefore, the proposed structure is a compact and efficient sensing component with hybrid sensitive mechanism that can achieve a temperature-RI dual-parameter measurement.