Tapered optical fiber geometries and sensing applications based on Mach-Zehnder Interferometer: A review

We propose simple and compact methods for implementing all-fiber interferometers. The interference between the core and the cladding modes of a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is utilized. To excite the cladding modes from the fundamental core mode of a PCF, a coupling point or region is formed by using two methods. One is fusion splicing two pieces of a PCF with a small lateral offset, and the other is partially collapsing the air-holes in a single piece of PCF. By making another coupling point at a different location along the fiber, the proposed all-PCF interferometer is implemented. The spectral response of the interferometer is investigated mainly in terms of its wavelength spectrum. The spatial frequency of the spectrum was proportional to the physical length of the interferometer and the difference between the modal group indices of involved waveguide modes. For the splicing type interferometer, only a single spatial frequency component was dominantly observed, while the collapsing type was associated with several components at a time. By analyzing the spatial frequency spectrum of the wavelength spectrum, the modal group index differences of the PCF were obtained from to . As potential applications of the all-PCF interferometer, strain sensing is experimentally demonstrated and ultra-high temperature sensing is proposed.

A wide range of applications such as health, human comfort, agriculture, food processing and storage, and electronic manufacturing, among others, require fast and accurate measurement of humidity. Sensors based on optical fibers present several advantages over electronic sensors and great research efforts have been made in recent years in this field. The present paper reports the current trends of optical fiber humidity sensors. The evolution of optical structures developed towards humidity sensing, as well as the novel materials used for this purpose, will be analyzed. Well-known optical structures, such as long-period fiber gratings or fiber Bragg gratings, are still being studied towards an enhancement of their sensitivity. Sensors based on lossy mode resonances constitute a platform that combines high sensitivity with low complexity, both in terms of their fabrication process and the equipment required. Novel structures, such as resonators, are being studied in order to improve the resolution of humidity sensors. Moreover, recent research on polymer optical fibers suggests that the sensitivity of this kind of sensor has not yet reached its limit. Therefore, there is still room for improvement in terms of sensitivity and resolution.