Magneto-refractive properties and measurement of an erbium-doped fiber

The magneto-refractive properties of an erbium-doped fiber (EDF) are investigated by theoretically analyzing the change in mode characteristics with a magnetic field and experimentally measuring it based on a fiber-optic Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI). The numerical results indicate that the mode effective refractive index (RI) increases as the magnetic field increases, and the mode field intensity distribution tends to be more concentrated in the core region with an increasing magnetic field. The variation in the mode effective RI of the fundamental mode with the magnetic field is greater than that of the higher-order modes. A magneto-refractive measurement system based on a fiber-optic MZI is set up to analyze the magneto-refractive effect of the EDF. The changes in the mode effective RI measured with a direct-current (DC) magnetic field and with a 100 Hz alternating-current (AC) magnetic field are 4.838×10^-6 and 4.245×10^-6 RIU/mT, respectively. The experimental results are in reasonable agreement with the theoretical analysis. Furthermore, the error between the experimental and numerical results is discussed. The magneto-refractive properties of the EDF exhibit potential in all-fiber magnetic field or current sensing area.