Abstract

We propose and demonstrate a new scheme for enhancing the sensitivity of an optical fiber vibration sensor based on microwave interferometry, which is realized by an incoherent optical Michelson interferometer (MI). The sensing arm of the MI is sensitive to environmental vibration; this will cause changes in the phase of the reflection spectra in the microwave domain. The phase sensitivity can be improved by adjusting the power ratio of the two beams in the interferometer and the driving frequency of the modulator. The system can overcome the problem of interference fading so that it is immune to environmental disturbance. The proposed scheme has merits of simplicity and compact configuration, and may provide a new type of high-precision fiber sensor for measuring vibration, temperature, strain, and so on.

© 2021 Optica Publishing Group

Microwave-photonic optical fiber interferometers for refractive index sensing with high sensitivity and a tunable dynamic range

Chen Zhu and Jie Huang
Opt. Lett. 46(9) 2180-2183 (2021)

Radio-frequency unbalanced M–Z interferometer for wavelength interrogation of fiber Bragg grating sensors

Jiaao Zhou, Li Xia, Rui Cheng, Yongqiang Wen, and Jalal Rohollahnejad
Opt. Lett. 41(2) 313-316 (2016)

Secure key distribution based on bidirectional Michelson interferometers

Qiuheng Song, Xin Lai, Yongchao Chen, Hekuo Peng, Jiachen Guo, Hongyan Wu, and Bo Jia
Opt. Lett. 46(10) 2264-2267 (2021)

Slow-wave-enhanced on-chip Michelson interferometer sensor

Jianhao Shen, Daniel Donnelly, and Swapnajit Chakravarty
Opt. Lett. 48(22) 5968-5971 (2023)

Optical fiber sensor based on a radio frequency Mach–Zehnder interferometer

Tao Wei, Jie Huang, Xinwei Lan, Qun Han, and Hai Xiao
Opt. Lett. 37(4) 647-649 (2012)