Real-time measurement of parametric influences on the refractive index and length changes in silica optical fibers

Abstract

In this paper, we present a simple cascaded Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) that can be used to measure in real-time the refractive index (RI) and length variation in silica optical fibers caused due to external physical parameters, such as temperature, strain, and radiation. As a proof-of-concept, we experimentally demonstrate real-time monitoring of temperature effects on the RI and length and measure the thermo-optic coefficient (TOC) and thermal expansion coefficient (TEC) by using the cascaded FPI within a temperature range of 21–486°C. The experimental results provide a TEC of 5.53 × 10−7/°C and TOC of 4.28 × 10−6/°C within the specified temperature range. Such a simple cascaded FPI structure will enable the design of optical sensors to correct for measurement errors by understanding the change in RI and length of optical fiber caused by environment parameters.