Fiber-optic current sensor with self-compensation of source wavelength changes

We demonstrate a method for self-compensation of scale factor changes of an interferometric fiber-optic current sensor caused by source wavelength shifts, e.g., due to changes in source temperature or drive current. An adequately tailored fiber-optic retarder in the optical circuit introduces wavelength-dependent mixing of the orthogonal polarization modes of the sensor. The resulting change in scale factor balances the variation of the Faraday effect with wavelength. The wavelength dependence of the sensor is suppressed by more than an order of magnitude to <0.2% over wavelength spans of at least 10 nm around 1305 nm. The retarder is designed as an athermal device for operation between -40°C and 80°C.