Miniature temperature sensor with germania-core optical fiber

Opt Express. 2015 Jul 13;23(14):17687-92. doi: 10.1364/OE.23.017687.

Abstract

A miniature all-fiber temperature sensor is demonstrated by using a Michelson interferometer formed with a short length of Germania-core, silica-cladding optical fiber (Ge-fiber) fusion-spliced to a conventional single-mode fiber (SMF). Thanks to the large differential refractive index of the Ge-fiber sensing element, a reasonably small free spectral range (FSR) of 18.6 nm is achieved even with an as short as 0.9 mm Ge-fiber that may help us increase the measurement accuracy especially in point sensing applications and, at the same time, keep large measurement temperature range without overlapping reading problem. Experimental results show that high sensitivity of 89.0 pm/°C is achieved and the highest measurement temperature is up to 500°C.