High sensitivity trace carbon monoxide gas sensor based on endlessly single-mode photonic crystal fiber Sagnac interferometer

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, a novel carbon monoxide (CO) gas sensor based on α-Fe2O3/MgO is presented and constructed. The endlessly single-mode photonic-crystal fibers (ESPCF) was sandwiched between the four-core fibers (FCF) to form the ESPCF-FCF-ESPCF structure, which was embedded it in the Sagnac loop to construct the Sagnac interferometer. The crystal structure, composition and morphology of α-Fe2O3/MgO sensing film were characterized by the X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and scanning electron microscope (SEM), respectively. The results indicated that the α-Fe2O3/MgO sensing film was uniformly coated on the outside surface of two ESPCFs, with a thickness of about 1 μm. When these sensing films adsorbed CO, the monitoring wavelength showed blueshift and the maximum sensitivity was 99.42 pm/ppm. The response time and recovery time were respectively 90 s and 100 s respectively. The Sagnac fiber-optic sensor exhibt high sensitivity, good selectivity and strong stability, and it can effectively realize the monitoring of carbon monoxide.