Integrated all-fiber-optic sensor based on FPI and MZI composite structures for temperature and strain measurement

Abstract

In this paper, a temperature and strain sensor based on fiber-optic Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) cascaded with Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) is designed and fabricated. The integrated sensor structure consists of no-core fiber (NCF) sandwiched by two sections of multi-mode fiber (MMF), hollow-core fiber (HCF), and two single-mode fibers (SMF) which are cascaded at the ends of the MMF and the HCF. Due to the thermal expansion effect, thermo-optic and elasto-optic effects of fiber material, the increase of the temperature and strain will make the change of the transmission mode, which will cause the spectral fringes wavelength shifting with strain, and the intensity of the spectral fringes varying with temperature but not strain variations in multiple temperature ranges. The series experiments valid show that the sensor with integrated structure realizes the strain and temperature measurements in multiple temperature ranges, and the minimum and maximum temperature sensitivities are − 0.278 dBm/°C and − 0.670 dBm/°C in the temperature range of 68–86 °C and 123–141 °C, respectively. The strain sensitivity is 2.17 pm/με all over the measured range. The integrated sensor structure has the advantages of high sensitivity, multiple measuring ranges, simple manufacturing, and low cost, which has the potential to be applied in the field of the internal strain and temperature measurements of different structures.