Ultra-Wide Detection Range of Fiber Optic Temperature Sensor Based on Polydimethylsiloxane Film-Coated Tapered Single-Mode Fiber

Abstract

This paper proposed a fiber optic temperature sensor with an ultra-wide detection range based on the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) film-coated tapered single-mode fiber (SMF). The SMF was tapered at first and then coated with a PDMS film to construct a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI). The PDMS, which has a high thermo-optical coefficient and high light transmittance, was used to enhance the temperature measurement sensitivity in a wide temperature range. Combining it with a fiber Bragg grating (FBG), the device was capable of operating over a wide range of temperature, from −30 °C to 200 °C. The maximum temperature sensitivity was 3.437 nm/°C and the average sensitivity was 1.777 nm/°C. The techniques presented in this paper can be applied to other interferometric fiber optic sensors by combining the FBG to achieve beyond free spectrum range (FSR) measurement. The proposed temperature sensor has the ease of fabrication, high sensitivity, and a wide detection range, showing its application prospects in temperature sensing.

Keywords

Mach-Zehnder interferometer / tapered single-mode fiber / temperature sensor / PDMS / fiber Bragg grating

References

[1] Juraszek J, Antonik-Popiolek P. Fibre optic FBG sensors for monitoring of the temperature of the building envelope. Materials, 2021, 14(5): 1207

[2] He C, Korposh S, Correia R, Liu L, Hayes-Gill B R, Morgan S P. Optical fibre sensor for simultaneous temperature and relative humidity measurement: towards absolute humidity evaluation. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 2021, 344: 130154

[3] Hyer H C, Giuliano D R, Petrie C M. Toward local core outlet temperature monitoring in gas-cooled nuclear reactors using distributed fiber-optic temperature sensors. Applied Thermal Engineering, 2023, 230: 120847

[4] Coote J, Alles E, Noimark S, Mosse C, Little C, Loder C, et al.. Dynamic physiological temperature and pressure sensing with phase-resolved low-coherence interferometry. Optics Express, 2019, 27(45641-5654

[5] Li H, Li H, Meng F, Lou X, Zhu L. All-fiber MZI sensor based on seven-core fiber and fiber ball symmetrical structure. Optics and Lasers in Engineering, 2019, 112: 1-6

[6] Zhang Z, Yin G, Jiang R, Gu S, Lu H, Liu K, et al.. Distributed bending sensing of few-mode fiber based on optical frequency domain reflectometry. Journal of Lightwave Technology, 2023, 41(211-7

[7] Wang Y, Zhou J, Luo Z, Ling C, Li Z, Fan L, et al.. Chloroform-infiltrated photonic crystal fiber with high-temperature sensitivity. Optics Express, 2023, 31(8): 13279-13290

[8] Sampath U, Song M. Epoxy-coated side-polished fiber-optic temperature sensor for cryogenic conditions. Sensors, 2023, 23(5): 2850

[9] Li X, Nguyen L V, Becker M, Ebendorff-Heidepriem H, Pham D, Warren-Smith S C. Simultaneous measurement of temperature and refractive index using an exposed core microstructured optical fiber. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, 2019, 26(41-7

[10] Lv R Q, Qu J F, Zhang M X, Li S Q, Liu Y N. A simple combination method of MZI and MI for salinity measurement. IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 2022, 71: 1-7

[11] Gong Z, Lei Y, Wang Z, Zhang J, Sun Z, Li Y, et al.. A taper-in-taper structured interferometric optical fiber sensor for Cu²⁺ ion detection. Sensors, 2022, 22(7): 2709

[12] Wang F, Lu Y, Wang X, Ma T, Li L, Yu K, et al.. A highly sensitive temperature sensor with a PDMS-coated tapered dispersion compensation fiber structure. Optics Communications, 2021, 497: 127183

[13] Zhang H, Shang J, Liu X, Sun W, Wang F, Liu Y. High-sensitivity fiber liquid crystals temperature sensor with tiny size and simple tapered structure. Chinese Optics Letters, 2020, 18(10101202

[14] Yi D, Liu F, Geng Y, Li X, Hong X. High-sensitivity and large-range fiber optic temperature sensor based on PDMS-coated Mach-Zehnder interferometer combined with FBG. Optics Express, 2021, 29(1218624-18633

[15] Zhao J, Zhao Y, Cai L. Hybrid fiber-optic sensor for seawater temperature and salinity simultaneous measurements. Journal of Lightwave Technology, 2022, 40(3880-886

[16] Wang F, Pang K, Ma T, Wang X, Liu Y. Folded-tapered multimode-no-core fiber sensor for simultaneous measurement of refractive index and temperature. Optics & Laser Technology, 2020, 130: 106333

[17] Wang J, Yang X, Kou Y, Tong D, Wang A, Niu C, et al.. Highly-sensitive temperature sensor based on photopolymerized-waveguide embedded Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Optics Express, 2023, 31(17): 27332-27344

[18] Liu J, Luo C, Yang H, Yi Z, Liu B, He X, et al.. Mach-Zehnder interferometer for high temperature (1 000 °C) sensing based on a few-mode fiber. Photonic Sensors, 2021, 11(3341-349

[19] Yao S, Shen Y, Wu Y, Jin W, Jian S. CStrain-insensitive temperature sensor based on a few-mode dual-concentric-core fiber. Optics & Laser Technology, 2019, 111: 95-99

[20] Liu C, Chen H, Chen Q, Gao Z, Wu B, Fan X, et al.. Sagnac interferometer-based optical fiber strain sensor with exceeding free spectral measurement range and high sensitivity. Optics & Laser Technology, 2023, 159: 108935

[21] Riza M A, Go Y I, Harun S W, Maier R R J. FBG sensors for environmental and biochemical applications - a review. IEEE Sensors Journal, 2020, 20(14): 7614-7627

[22] Fan X, Chen H, Zheng Y, Liu Y, Chen Q, Li X, et al.. A compact optical fiber Sagnac loop inserting with a nematic liquid crystal film for highly sensitive temperature sensing. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, 2022, 29(41-6

[23] Xiang K, Huang G, Zheng J, Wang X, Li G X, Huang J. Accelerated thermal ageing studies of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) rubber. Journal of Polymer Research, 2012, 19: 1-7

[24] Yang T, Liu C, Liu X, Feng Y, Shen T, Han W. Fiber optic high temperature sensor based on ZnO composite graphene temperature sensitive material. Optics Communications, 2022, 515: 128222

[25] Chen M Q, Lin Z Y, Zhao Y. Femtosecond laser direct-writing on-chip MZI temperature sensor based on polymer waveguides. IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 2023, 72: 1-8

[26] Chu R, Guan C, Bo Y, Shi J, Zhu Z, Li P, et al.. Temperature sensor in suspended core hollow fiber covered with reduced graphene oxide. IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 2019, 31(7): 553-556

[27] Zhang P, Liu B, Liu J, Xie C F, Wan S P, He X D, et al.. Investigation of a side-polished fiber MZI and its sensing performance. IEEE Sensors Journal, 2020, 20(11): 5909-5914

[28] Wang Q, Chen X, Zhou X, Liu W, Song D, Yan X, et al.. An antiinterference temperature sensor based on Mach-Zehnder interferometer using Kagome hollow-core photonic crystal fiber. IEEE Sensors Journal, 2023, 23(8): 8426-8434

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s)