All-fiber optical magnetic-field sensor based on Faraday rotation in highly terbium-doped fiber

Magnetic field measurements based on Terfenol coated photonic crystal fibers

A magnetic field sensor based on the integration of a high birefringence photonic crystal fiber and a composite material made of Terfenol particles and an epoxy resin is proposed. An in-fiber modal interferometer is assembled by evenly exciting both eigenemodes of the HiBi fiber. Changes in the cavity length as well as the effective refractive index are induced by exposing the sensor head to magnetic fields. The magnetic field sensor has a sensitivity of 0.006 (nm/mT) over a range from 0 to 300 mT with a resolution about ±1 mT. A fiber Bragg grating magnetic field sensor is also fabricated and employed to characterize the response of Terfenol composite to the magnetic field.

Complex Faraday rotation in microstructured magneto-optical fiber waveguides

Magneto-optical glasses are of considerable current interest, primarily for applications in fiber circuitry, optical isolation, all-optical diodes, optical switching and modulation. While the benchmark materials are still crystalline, glasses offer a variety of unique advantages, such as very high rare-earth and heavy-metal solubility and, in principle, the possibility of being produced in fiber form. In comparison to conventional fiber-drawing processes, pressure-assisted melt-filling of microcapillaries or photonic crystal fibers with magneto-optical glasses offers an alternative route to creating complex waveguide architectures from unusual combinations of glasses. For instance, strongly diamagnetic tellurite or chalcogenide glasses with high refractive index can be combined with silica in an all-solid, microstructured waveguide. This promises the implementation of as-yet-unsuitable but strongly active glass candidates as fiber waveguides, for example in photonic crystal fibers.

Characterisation and performance of a Terfenol-D coated femtosecond laser inscribed optical fibre Bragg sensor with a laser ablated microslot for the detection of static magnetic fields

We present a novel device for the characterisation of static magnetic fields through monitoring wavelength shifts of femtosecond inscribed fibre Bragg grating and micromachined slot, coated with Terfenol-D. The device was sensitive to static magnetic fields and can be used as a vectoral sensor for the detection of magnetic fields as low as 0.046 mT with a resolution of ± 0.3mT in transmission and ± 0.7mT in reflection. The use of a femtosecond laser to both inscribe the FBGs and micromachine the slot in a single stage prior to coating the device significantly simplifies the fabrication.

Compact all-fiber optical Faraday components using 65-wt%-terbium-doped fiber with a record Verdet constant of -32 rad/(Tm)

A compact all-fiber Faraday isolator and a Faraday mirror are demonstrated. At the core of each of these components is an all-fiber Faraday rotator made of a 4-cm-long, 65-wt%-terbium-doped silicate fiber. The effective Verdet constant of the terbium-doped fiber is measured to be -32 rad/(Tm), which is 27 x larger than that of silica fiber. This effective Verdet constant is the largest value measured to date in any fiber and is 83% of the Verdet constant of commercially available crystal used in bulk optics-based isolators. Combining the all-fiber Faraday rotator with fiber polarizers results in a fully fusion spliced all-fiber isolator whose isolation is measured to be 19 dB. Combining the all-fiber Faraday rotator with a fiber Bragg grating results in an all-fiber Faraday mirror that rotates the polarization state of the reflected light by 88 +/- 4 degrees .