High sensitivity humidity sensor based on cladding-etched optical fiber and lossy mode resonances

In this work a high sensitivity optical fiber humidity sensor (OFHS) is presented. The configuration chosen for this purpose is a cladding-etched single mode optical fiber (CE-SMF) coated with a thin film of tin oxide (SnO2). The etching has been made using hydrofluoric acid (HF) and the coating has...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Ascorbe Muruzabal, Joaquín, Corres Sanz, Jesús María, Matías Maestro, Ignacio, Arregui San Martín, Francisco Javier
Format: article
Status:Versión aceptada para publicación
Publication Date:2016
Country:España
Institution:Universidad Pública de Navarra
Repository:Academica-e. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad Pública de Navarra
OAI Identifier:oai:academica-e.unavarra.es:2454/31351
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2454/31351
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Lossy mode resonances
Cladding-etched single mode optical fiber
Optical fiber humidity sensor
Tin oxide
Thin films
Description
Summary:In this work a high sensitivity optical fiber humidity sensor (OFHS) is presented. The configuration chosen for this purpose is a cladding-etched single mode optical fiber (CE-SMF) coated with a thin film of tin oxide (SnO2). The etching has been made using hydrofluoric acid (HF) and the coating has been fabricated by means of sputtering. Tin oxide was used to build the nano-coating which produces the Lossy Mode Resonance (LMR) and works as sensitive material. Theoretical and experimental results are shown and compared. The device was tested using a climatic chamber in order to obtain the response of the OFHS to relative humidity. Changes greater than 130 nm have been obtained for relative humidity varying from 20% to 90%, which gives a sensitivity of 1.9 nm/%RH.