Temperature and Vibration Dependence of the Faraday Effect of Gd₂O₃ NPs-Doped Alumino-Silicate Glass Optical Fiber

Sensors (Basel). 2018 Mar 27;18(4):988. doi: 10.3390/s18040988.

Abstract

All-optical fiber magnetic field sensor based on the Gd₂O₃ nano-particles (NPs)-doped alumino-silicate glass optical fiber was developed, and its temperature and vibration dependence on the Faraday Effect were investigated. Uniformly embedded Gd₂O₃ NPs were identified to form in the core of the fiber, and the measured absorption peaks of the fiber appearing at 377 nm, 443 nm, and 551 nm were attributed to the Gd₂O₃ NPs incorporated in the fiber core. The Faraday rotation angle (FRA) of the linearly polarized light was measured at 650 nm with the induced magnetic field by the solenoid. The Faraday rotation angle was found to increase linearly with the magnetic field, and it was about 18.16° ± 0.048° at 0.142 Tesla (T) at temperatures of 25 °C-120 °C, by which the estimated Verdet constant was 3.19 rad/(T∙m) ± 0.01 rad/(T∙m). The variation of the FRA with time at 0.142 T and 120 °C was negligibly small (-9.78 × 10-4 °/min). The variation of the FRA under the mechanical vibration with the acceleration below 10 g and the frequency above 50 Hz was within 0.5°.

Keywords: faraday effect; nano-particles; optical absorption; optical fiber; temperature dependence.