FiberOpticSensors-Pages.docVIP

Fiber Optic Sensors Richard Manley Contemporary Optics 507 April 30, 2002 Purpose The purpose of the project was to gain a better understanding of optical fiber and the application in such areas as interferometric sensors. This project was also to be used to obtain experience in laboratory techniques of optical fiber technology. Several projects out of the “Projects in Fiber Optics Applications Handbook” were preformed to develop the skills necessary to build the interferometric sensor described in project 10, in the handbook. This report will give a brief theoretical explanation of how an optical fiber interferometer can be used to measure the changes in such physical parameters as temperature and pressure. A summary of the results will also be included. Most importantly, it will give a detailed description of the experimental setup, as well as list things that could have been done differently. These details are intended for those who will be attempting the project next. It is hoped that it will save the experimenters time, as well as help in further refining the set up, to produce more accurate results. Theory The concept behind the interferometric sensor is the property interference. When two electromagnetic waves are in the same space the combination of these waves is a vector addition of each wave. That is when two electromagnetic waves are polarized in the same plane there amplitudes can simply be added together. When two identical fields are 180? out of phase the addition of the waves produces a zero field, this is called destructive interference. When the fields are in phase the superposition of these waves is called constructive interference. Thus a change in one of the two fields produces a change in the interference of the waves. The measurement of these changes in the interference as a function of the perturbation of one of the fields is how an interferometer works. There are several types of interferometers, but the Mach-Zehnder interfe