Liquid-Crystal-Filled Side-hole Fiber for High-Sensitivity Temperature and Electric Field Measurement

Abstract

We propose a highly sensitive sensor based on a nematic liquid-crystal-filled side-hole fiber. The liquid crystal is precisely filled into an air hole of the optical fiber using a method of manually gluing in the fusion splicer. Due to the coupling between the liquid crystal waveguide and the fiber core, multiple response dips appear in the transmission spectrum of the device. When an external temperature or electric field variation is applied to the liquid crystal and its refractive index changes, the transmission spectrum of this device will shift accordingly. Temperature and electric field response tests were performed on the device in the experiment, and the obtained temperature and electric field sensitivities were as high as −1.5 nm/°C and 3.88 nm/Vpp, respectively. For the exhibited advantages of being easy to manufacture, low cost, and high sensitivity, the proposed sensor is very promising for actual application in temperature or weak electric field monitoring.

Double-parameter sensing of voltage and magnetic field based on photonic crystal fiber

“…Recently, PCFs have been used by many researchers in the development of electric and magnetic sensors. For sensing of the electric field or voltage, liquid crystal materials were filled in the different PCF structures, such as an all-fiber structure [7], a side-hole structure [8], and an all-polarization state structure [9]. For the sensing of magnetic field, magnetic fluid (MF) materials were filled in the PCFs, the different sensing mechanisms were used, such as surface plasmon resonance (SPR) [10,11], directional coupling [12,13], two-core coupling [14], Fabry-Perot (FP) interferometer [15,16], Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) [17,18] and Sagnac interferometer [19].…”

“…At present, the dual-parameter optical fiber sensors of the electric or magnetic fields are in the initial stage of theoretical and experimental research, in which one parameter is mostly temperature. Huang et al [8] proposed a liquid-crystal-filled side-hole PCF to measure voltage and temperature. The sensitivity of voltage reached 3.88 nm/V, and the temperature sensitivity reached −1.5 nm/ °C.…”

Fiber Optic Electric Field Intensity Sensor Based on Liquid Crystal-Filled Photonic Crystal Fiber Incorporated Ring Laser

“…The intensive power machine attached with distributed electromagnetic field make it impossible to measure electric and electronic field at work state [1]. Due to small volume, great portability, high sensitivity, and immunity to electro-magnetic interference [2], varieties optical fiber electric-field sensors have been investigated and studied to measure electric field intensity in the laboratory, such as tilted fiber grating (FBG) [3], hole-core fiber (HCF) [4], side-hole fiber (SHF) [5], FBG [6] and bandgap like effect [7]. All the optical fiber sensor information is carried in the light that has no destructions on electromagnetic field.…”

Editorial for the Special Issue on IMCO 2019

“…In this Special Issue, 10 papers present integrated, multifunctional physical and chemical sensors based on different platforms such as silicon gas cells [ 1 ], microchips [ 2 , 3 ], and various forms of optical fibers [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ]. These studies well demonstrate the beauty of optofluidics by integrating the microfabricated structures and the micro-optics for high sensitivity and specificity of sensing.…”

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This special issue is a collection of 12 technical papers and two reviews that are expanded into full-length articles from the conference abstracts of the 9th International Multidisciplinary Conference on Optofluidics (IMCO 2019) held in Hong Kong in 14-17 June 2019. The IMCO conference series is held annually to promote scientific exchange and collaboration among leading international researchers across cutting-edge research fields such as micro/nanofluidics, optical devices and systems, plasmonics and metamaterials, biochemical sensors and medical diagnosis, imaging and display, fabrication and integration, and energy and environment.In this Special Issue, 10 papers present integrated, multifunctional physical and chemical sensors based on different platforms such as silicon gas cells [1], microchips [2,3], and various forms of optical fibers [4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. These studies well demonstrate the beauty of optofluidics by integrating the microfabricated structures and the micro-optics for high sensitivity and specificity of sensing.

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