Investigation of Humidity and Temperature Response of a Silica Gel Coated Microfiber Coupler

Sun, Lei, Semenova, Yuliya, Wu, Qiang, Liu, Dejun, Yuan, Jinhui, Sang, Xinzhu, Yan, Binbin, Wang, Kuiru, Yu, Chongxiu and Farrell, Gerald (2016) Investigation of Humidity and Temperature Response of a Silica Gel Coated Microfiber Coupler. IEEE Photonics Journal, 8 (6). p. 6805407. ISSN 1943-0655

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Abstract

The humidity and temperature responses of a microfiber coupler (MFC) coated with silica gel are investigated. Two MFC structures with different waist diameters of 2.5 and 3.5 μm were fabricated by fusing and tapering two single-mode fibers using a microheater brushing technique. The influences of the coating thickness and tapered waist diameter on the sensing performance are analyzed. For the proposed sensor with a waist diameter of 2.5 μm and 8-layers thick coating, the change in the relative humidity (RH) results in an exponential blueshift with a maximum sensitivity of 1.6 nm/% RH in the range from 70 to 86% RH. In response to the temperature change, the sensor's transmission spectrum redshifts in a linear fashion with an average sensitivity of 0.55 nm/°C in the range from 20 to 40 °C. The study is important for the development of the proposed fiber structure as a humidity or temperature sensor.

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