Capillary fiber (CF) has been extensively investigated in a singlemode fiber (SMF)-CF-SMF (SCS) sensing structure since multiple light guiding mechanisms can be easily excited by simply tuning the air core diameter (cladding diameter) and length of the CF. Understanding the light guiding principles in an SCS structure is essential for improved implementation of a CF based fiber sensor. In this work, light guiding principles in a relatively large air core diameter (≥ 20 µm) and long length of CF (> 1 mm) are investigated theoretically and experimentally. It is found that both multimode interference (MMI) and Anti-Resonant Reflecting Optical Waveguide (ARROW) light guiding mechanisms are excited in the SCS structure in the transmission configuration. However, MMI dips are not observed in the spectrum for the air core diameters of CF smaller than 50 µm in the experiment due to large transmission loss in small air core CFs. Further experimental results demonstrate that a CF with a bigger air core diameter shows a higher sensitivity to curvature, and the highest sensitivity of -16.15 nm/m-1 is achieved when an CF-100 was used. In addition, a SMF-CF-20-CF-30-SMF (SCCS) structure is proposed for high sensitivity bi-direction liquid level measurement for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. Two types of ARROW dips (Dip-20 and Dip-30) are simultaneously excited in transmission, hence both liquid level and liquid flow direction can be detected by tracing the dip strength changes of Dip-20 and Dip-30, respectively.
The construction of multiple light guidance mechanisms in a hollow-core fiber (HCF) structure is a popular way to realize the simultaneous measurement of multiple parameters. In this work, a partial coating method to excite multiple anti-resonant light guidance mechanisms (ARLGMs) in an HCF structure for the simultaneous measurement of multiple parameters is proposed. As an example, a double ARLGM based on a partially polyimide (PI)-coated HCF structure for the simultaneous measurement of relative humidity (RH) and temperature is demonstrated theoretically and experimentally. The dip (dip II) produced by the PI-coated HCF section shifts linearly with surrounding RH changes with a sensitivity of circa 58.6 ± 0.77 pm/%RH, while the dip (dip I) produced by the bare HCF section (with an air coating layer) is insensitive to RH changes. In addition, both types of dips have linear responses to temperature variations, with similar sensitivities of ∼ 17 pm/°C. Hence, the proposed sensor structure can be used as an RH sensor that is also capable of compensating for local temperature fluctuations. More importantly, the simultaneous measurement of multiple parameters (such as biomarkers) is possible using the proposed method provided the proper sensing materials are partially coated onto the HCF surface.
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