Investigations on cladded U-shaped fiber optic sensors for refractive index measurements

This study investigates the use of U-shaped cladded plastic optical fiber (POF) and glass optical fiber (GOF) probes for refractive index (RI) sensing as they allow a simple one-step fabrication process. The RI sensitivity of the U-shaped cladded POF probes were evaluated in narrow (1.333 to 1.348, increment of 0.003 RI) and intermediate RI ranges (1.34 to 1.39, increment of 0.01 RI). No considerable improvement or drop was observed. However, the U-shaped silica cladded GOF showed 1.3 and 1.54 -fold improvement in the RI sensitivity in comparison to the decladded probes in the narrow and intermediate RI range respectively. The highest sensitivities for cladded POF and GOF probes in the intermediate RI range were 4.7 and 10.8 ΔA530 nm/ΔRIU respectively.