Harnessing the fiber fuse for sensing applications

Area of Science:

• Photonics and Optical Sensing
• Materials Science
• Fiber Optic Technology

Background:

• Refractive index sensors are crucial for various applications, including chemical detection and environmental monitoring.
• Existing fiber optic sensors face challenges in mass production and cost-effectiveness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and demonstrate a simple refractive index sensor using the fiber fuse technique.
• To compare its sensitivity with a hetero-core structure fiber sensor.
• To explore the potential of fiber fuse technology for mass-producing optical fiber sensors.

Main Methods:

• A simple fiber optic sensor was fabricated by incorporating a small section of fiber damaged by the fiber fuse technique.
• A hetero-core structure fiber sensor (no-core fiber between single-mode fibers) was also fabricated for comparison.
• The sensitivity of both sensors was measured in terms of nanometers per refractive index unit (nm/RIU).

Main Results:

• The fiber fuse-based sensor demonstrated a high sensitivity of 350.58 nm/RIU.
• The hetero-core structure sensor showed a sensitivity of 157.29 nm/RIU.
• The fiber fuse technique allows for the incorporation of damaged fiber sections for sensor fabrication.

Conclusions:

• The proposed fiber fuse-based sensor exhibits significantly higher sensitivity compared to the hetero-core structure sensor.
• The fiber fuse technique is a viable method for the mass production of optical fiber sensors.
• This represents the first application of periodic damage tracks formed by fiber fuse for optical fiber sensing.