High-sensitive fiber-optic pressure sensor based on Fabry-Perot interferometer filled with ultraviolet glue film and Vernier effect

A high sensitivity fiber-optic pressure sensor based on Fabry-Perot interferometer filled with ultraviolet (UV) glue film and Vernier effect was proposed and demonstrated. The sensor is composed of a sensing Fabry-Perot (FP) cavity and a reference FP cavity in parallel. The sensing cavity is fabricated by splicing a section of silica tube (ST) to the lead-in single-mode fiber (SMF), and filling a thin layer of UV glue at the end-face of the ST. The reference cavity is made by sandwiching a section of ST between two SMF. The parallel cavities generate the Vernier effect due to a similar free spectrum range, which significantly improves the sensitivity of the sensor. The proposed sensor with good repeatability and reliability was used to monitor the change of air pressure, and provided a high sensitivity of −38.3 nm/MPa. The sensor exhibited the potential applications in the fields of aerospace industry, biological diagnostics and environmental monitoring.