Affordable Highly Sensitive Fiber Optical Sensor Based on Coupled Fibers with Harmonically Varying Refractive Index

Abstract

Optical fiber sensors consist of multiple Mach–Zehnder (MZ) interferometers and are common in the protection of different compounds. These sensors are very sensitive to any intrusion or threat. However, the spatial resolution is proportional to the number of MZ interferometers along the sensor. Consequently, a long sensor with a high resolution can be costly. In this paper, we suggest replacing the cascaded MZ interferometers with a couple of adjacent fibers, each of which have a harmonically varying refractive index. In this theoretical study, it is shown that two fibers with varying refractive indices demonstrate a sensitivity equivalent to that of multiple MZ interferometers. Furthermore, when the coupling coefficient between the fibers is weak, an analytical expression can be derived for the transmission between the fibers. This transmission reveals a quantization rule for which the light coupling between the two fibers vanishes.