Low-Cost High Sensitivity Large Offset Mach-Zehnder Interferometer Optical Fiber Salinity Sensor with Long Sensing Area

• Published in: IEEE sensors journal Vol. 24; no. 6; p. 1
• Main Authors: Liu, Rui-Jie, Lv, Ri-Qing, Lin, Zi-Ting, Zhang, Man-Xi, Zhao, Yong, Zhang, Ya-nan, Wang, Yu, Zhou, Li-Ming, Wang, Wei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 15.03.2024; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Demodulation; Geologic measurements; Long sensing area; Low cost; Mach-Zehnder interferometers; Optical fiber sensors; Optical fibers; Production methods; Salinity; Salinity (geophysical); Sea measurements; Seawater; Seawater salinity; Sensitivity; Sensors; Single mode fiber
• ISSN: 1530-437X; 1558-1748
• DOI: 10.1109/JSEN.2024.3360221

A low-cost high sensitivity large offset salinity sensor with long sensing area is proposed and demonstrated in this paper. The sensor is composed of three misaligned single mode fibers (SMFs), in which the middle long-distance SMF is used for sensing, which is the SMF with long sensing area and is misaligned with a pair of SMFs to form single mode fiber-long sensing area single mode fiber-single mode fiber structure, that is, SMF-LSSMF-SMF structure. According to the simulation results, the single mode fiber large offset structure with the sensing area length of 1000μm was prepared and used to measure seawater salinity. The experimental results reveal that the salinity sensitivity of structure can reach -1.22 nm/‰ (-6263.11 nm/RIU), and it has more spectral periods in the same spectral range than the short sensing area probe. SMF-LSSMF-SMF has the advantages of compact structure, high sensitivity, simple production method and outstanding repeatability, which can increase spectral information, provide richer period information for subsequent demodulation processing, eliminate the problem that the period cannot be judged after spectral aliasing under high sensitivity, and has great potential in the field of high-precision seawater salinity measurement.