Investigation of a Fiberoptic Device Based on a Long Period Grating in a Ring Resonator

Sensors (Basel). 2016 Aug 24;16(9):1357. doi: 10.3390/s16091357.

Abstract

A fiberoptic architecture based on a ring resonator (RR) including a typical long period grating (LPG) was investigated. The interactions between the fundamental core mode (LP01 or HE11) coupled to the RR and the cladding mode (LP08), excited into the cavity by means of the LPG, allow a peculiar spectral response characterized by two splitting resonances to be achieved. The new LPGRR architecture is investigated theoretically and a mathematical modelling based on the transfer matrix method (TMM) is proposed. The theoretical results are compared with the experiments measured by an open-loop LPG, while the performance of the relative LPGRR was estimated by a theoretical parametric analysis. Finally, an overview of the possible LPGRR sensing applications is provided by investigating the features of a strain sensor operating in different environmental conditions.

Keywords: long period grating (LPG); optical fiber sensor; refractive index (RI); ring resonator (RR); strain; transfer matrix method (TMM).