Innovative sensor for refractive index monitoring based on a plastic optical fiber side-polished in a ‘V’-bent structure

Abstract

An innovative probe design, based on plastic optical fiber which has been designed around a side-polished fiber, bent into a ‘V’ shape, is reported. Such a probe offers an innovative approach to monitoring of the surrounding refractive index of the material under study. The underlying principle is that such a side-polished optical fiber configured in this way can give rise to an enhanced evanescent field. This structure, with the optical fiber slot, was used to fix the side-polished plastic optical fiber. As a result, the plastic optical fiber (POF) probe created this way has been optimized using different intersection angles, circular chamfer radius and different polished depths. The maximum sensitivity achieved with the use of this probe reaches 206.4 dB/Refractive Index Unit over the range of refractive index from 1.33 to 1.40. In the design, the half intersection angle, the circular chamfer radius and the polished depth were set to 30°, 1.12mm and 194.6μm, respectively. Such a probe based on inexpensive plastic optical fiber has significant potential for a variety of low-cost, refractive index sensing applications.

Fiber-tip-integrated High-sensitivity Refractive Index and High-precision Liquid Level Sensor Based on Surface Plasmon Resonance

“…(1)(2)(3) Optical fiber sensing for RI measurement has been widely implemented because of its advantages of anti-electromagnetic interference, strong remote monitoring ability, and low price. (4)(5)(6)(7) Similarly, high-precision liquid level sensing is of considerable significance in chemical industry, oil storage, public water supply, and so forth. By monitoring the changes in physical quantities related to liquid level information, the remote monitoring and control of liquid level can be achieved.…”

Wavelength dependent transmission in multimode graded-index microstructured polymer optical fibers

“…The assets of POFs, such as a large core and simple connection, may offer a cost-effective solution for the inhome network. Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) [4,5], polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) [6,7], polystyrene (PS) [8,9], polycarbonate (PC) [10,11], perfluorinated polymer (CYTOP ® ) [12,13], cycloolefin polymer (ZEONEX ® ) [14,15], and cycloolefin copolymer (TOPAS ® ) [16,17] are just a few of the materials used to fabricate POFs. Due to the flexibility of POF material, it is feasible to produce POFs that meet the requirements of various applications by using alternative specifications or materials.…”

Unsaturated polyester resin/polymethylmethacrylate waveguide-based refractive index sensor with dual-wavelength temperature compensation

“…Nowadays, other optical fiber types have also been used to develop RI optical sensors such as photonic crystal fiber [11][12][13], no core fiber [14,15] and plastic optical fiber (POF) [16]. However, mechanical treatments such as etching and tapering which are commonly implemented in modifying the optical fiber structure for sensor application, may degrade the fiber's strength.…”