Regenerated gratings in air-hole microstructured fibers for high-temperature pressure sensing

Distributed and polarimetric pressure sensitivity in spun highly birefringent optical fibers

We examine experimentally the influence of the fiber inelastic twist on polarimetric sensitivity to hydrostatic pressure and pressure sensitivity in a Rayleigh-scattering-based optical frequency-domain reflectometer (OFDR) for highly birefringent side-hole fibers. The fibers were drawn from the same preform with different spin pitches varying from 5 mm to 200 mm. We also demonstrate that the sensitivities of spun fiber can be estimated analytically based on its spin pitch, measured birefringence, and the sensitivity of the corresponding non-twisted fiber, showing good agreement with the experimental results. We proved that polarimetric sensitivity to pressure decreases with the shorter spin pitches, while distributed pressure sensitivity decreases for the one polarization eigenmode and increases for the second polarization eigenmode. Therefore, the spun-fibers can operate well as the polarimetric sensors of other physical parameters inducing circular birefringence even under varying pressure. Moreover, they can be used to obtain the desired difference between sensitivities for both polarization eigenmodes.

A MEMS-Based High-Fineness Fiber-Optic Fabry–Perot Pressure Sensor for High-Temperature Application

In this paper, a high-fineness fiber-optic Fabry–Perot high-temperature pressure sensor, based on MEMS technology, is proposed and experimentally verified. The Faber–Perot cavity of the pressure sensor is formed by the anodic bonding of a sensitive silicon diaphragm and a Pyrex glass; a high-fineness interference signal is obtained by coating the interface surface with a high-reflection film, so as to simplify the signal demodulation system. The experimental results show that the pressure sensitivity of this sensor is 55.468 nm/MPa, and the temperature coefficient is 0.01859 nm/°C at 25~300 °C. The fiber-optic pressure sensor has the following advantages: high fineness, high temperature tolerance, high consistency and simple demodulation, resulting in a wide application prospect in the field of high-temperature pressure testing.

High-Consistency Optical Fiber Fabry-Perot Pressure Sensor Based on Silicon MEMS Technology for High Temperature Environment

This paper proposes a high-temperature optical fiber Fabry–Perot pressure sensor based on the micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS). The sensing structure of the sensor is composed of Pyrex glass wafer and silicon wafer manufactured by mass micromachining through anodic bonding process. The separated sensing head and the gold-plated fiber are welded together by a carbon dioxide laser to form a fiber-optic Fabry–Perot high temperature pressure sensor, which uses a four-layer bonding technology to improve the sealing performance of the Fabry–Perot cavity. The test system of high temperature pressure sensor is set up, and the experimental data obtained are calculated and analyzed. The experimental results showed that the maximum linearity of the optical fiber pressure sensor was 1% in the temperature range of 20–400 °C. The pressure sensor exhibited a high linear sensitivity of about 1.38 nm/KPa at room temperature at a range of pressures from approximarely 0-to 1 MPa. The structure of the sensor is characterized by high consistency, which makes the structure more compact and the manufacturing process more controllable.

Resurgent regenerated fiber Bragg gratings and thermal annealing techniques for ultra-high temperature sensing beyond 1400°C

We report for the first time the resurgence of regenerated fiber Bragg gratings (RFBGs) useful for ultra-high temperature measurements exceeding 1400 °C. A detailed study of the dynamics associated with grating regeneration in six-hole microstructured optical fibers (SHMOFs) and single mode fibers (SMFs) was conducted. Rapid heating and rapid cooling techniques appeared to have a significant impact on the thermal sustainability of the RFBGs in both types of optical fibers reaching temperature regimes exceeding 1400 °C. The presence of air holes sheds new light in understanding the thermal response of RFBGs and the stresses associated with them, which governs the variation in the Bragg wavelength.

High temperature resistant ultra-short DBR Yb-doped fiber laser

We present a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) Yb-doped fiber laser based on a pair of type IA fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs). The high temperature resistant gratings are fabricated in high absorption hydrogen loaded Yb-doped silica fiber by use of a 244 nm argon laser and phase mask method. The DBR laser, with only 10 mm cavity length, exhibits high signal-noise ratio (SNR) of over 50 dB and can survive at 450°C in a long term with stable output power and central wavelength. Besides, the laser has a relatively low temperature sensitivity of 8.9 pm/°C, which contributes to cross-sensitization of stress and temperature.

High-sensitivity gas pressure sensor based on hollow-core photonic bandgap fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a highly sensitive gas pressure sensor based on a near-balanced Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) and constructed by hollow-core photonic bandgap fiber (HC-PBF) in this paper. The MZI is simply constructed by fusion splicing two HC-PBFs, which are of slightly different lengths, between two 3-dB couplers. The two output ends of each coupler are approximately equal in length, to ensure that the optical path variations of the MZI only result from the differences in the lengths between the two HC-PBFs. To apply the MZI for gas pressure sensing, a femtosecond laser is employed to drill a micro-channel in one of the two HC-PBF arms. The experiment result shows that the proposed MZI based gas pressure sensor achieves an ultrahigh sensitivity, up to 2.39 nm/kPa, which is two orders of magnitude higher than that of the previously reported MZI-based gas pressure sensors. Additionally, the effects resulting from the absolute length and relative length of the two HC-PBFs on gas pressure sensing performance are also investigated experimentally and theoretically, respectively. The ultra-high sensitivity and ease of fabrication make this device suitable for gas pressure sensing in the field of industrial and environmental safety monitoring.

Batch-producible MEMS fiber-optic Fabry-Perot pressure sensor for high-temperature application

A fiber-optic Fabry-Perot pressure sensor based on a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) and CO₂ laser fusion technology is developed and experimentally demonstrated for high-temperature application. The sensing heads are batch-fabricated by anodically bonding the micromachined Pyrex glass wafer and local gold-plated silicon wafer. The separated sensing head and the single-mode fiber are fused together to form the Fabry-Perot cavity using the CO₂ laser. In order to improve the measurement accuracy in a high-temperature environment, a fiber Bragg grating is used as a temperature sensor for temperature decoupling. The experimental results show that the fiber-optic Fabry-Perot pressure sensor has a maximum nonlinearity of 0.4%. The maximal error of the pressure after temperature decoupling is less than 1.05% over a pressure range of 0-0.5 MPa and a temperature range of 20°C-350°C. The batch fabrication technology makes the sensors low cost and high uniformity.

Integrated FP/RFBG sensor with a micro-channel for dual-parameter measurement under high temperature

An integrated sensor via overlapping a micro Fabry-Perot (MFP) cavity with a micro-channel on a regenerated fiber Bragg grating (RFBG) is constructed for dual-parameter sensing of temperature, strain, and gas pressure under a high temperature (600°C). The MFP is fabricated by using a 157 nm micro-machining on H₂-loaded bendinsensitive fiber. A fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is inscribed at the same position of the MFP using 248 nm laser exposure, and then successfully regenerated after a required annealing process which enhances the strain sensitivity of MFP more than three times. The micro-channel created on the MFP is used to improve gas pressure sensitivity of the MFP nearly 100 times. Since the MFP and RFBG have different sensitivities to gas pressure, strain, and temperature, the sensor head could be used to perform dual-parameter measurement by simultaneous measurement of high temperature and strain, and high temperature and gas pressure.

Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors for the Oil Industry

With the oil and gas industry growing rapidly, increasing the yield and profit require advances in technology for cost-effective production in key areas of reservoir exploration and in oil-well production-management. In this paper we review our group’s research into fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) and their applications in the oil industry, especially in the well-logging field. FBG sensors used for seismic exploration in the oil and gas industry need to be capable of measuring multiple physical parameters such as temperature, pressure, and acoustic waves in a hostile environment. This application requires that the FBG sensors display high sensitivity over the broad vibration frequency range of 5 Hz to 2.5 kHz, which contains the important geological information. We report the incorporation of mechanical transducers in the FBG sensors to enable enhance the sensors’ amplitude and frequency response. Whenever the FBG sensors are working within a well, they must withstand high temperatures and high pressures, up to 175 °C and 40 Mpa or more. We use femtosecond laser side-illumination to ensure that the FBGs themselves have the high temperature resistance up to 1100 °C. Using FBG sensors combined with suitable metal transducers, we have experimentally realized high- temperature and pressure measurements up to 400 °C and 100 Mpa. We introduce a novel technology of ultrasonic imaging of seismic physical models using FBG sensors, which is superior to conventional seismic exploration methods. Compared with piezoelectric transducers, FBG ultrasonic sensors demonstrate superior sensitivity, more compact structure, improved spatial resolution, high stability and immunity to electromagnetic interference (EMI). In the last section, we present a case study of a well-logging field to demonstrate the utility of FBG sensors in the oil and gas industry.

Negative-index gratings formed by femtosecond laser overexposure and thermal regeneration

We demonstrate a method for the preparation of negative-index fibre Bragg gratings (FBGs) using 800 nm femtosecond laser overexposure and thermal regeneration. A positive-index type I-IR FBG was first inscribed in H₂-free single-mode fibre using a femtosecond laser directed through a phase mask, and then a highly polarization dependant phase-shifted FBG (P-PSFBG) was fabricated from the type I-IR FBG by overexposure to the femtosecond laser. Subsequently, the P-PSFBG was thermally annealed at 800 °C for 12 hours. Grating regeneration was observed during thermal annealing, and a negative-index FBG was finally obtained with a high reflectivity of 99.22%, an ultra-low insertion loss of 0.08 dB, a blueshift of 0.83 nm in the Bragg wavelength, and an operating temperature of up to 1000 °C for more than 10 hours. Further annealing tests showed that the thermal stability of the negative-index FBG was lower than that of a type II-IR FBG, but much higher than that of a type I-IR FBG. Moreover, the formation of such a negative-index grating may result from thermally regenerated type IIA photosensitivity.

Miniature temperature sensor with germania-core optical fiber

A miniature all-fiber temperature sensor is demonstrated by using a Michelson interferometer formed with a short length of Germania-core, silica-cladding optical fiber (Ge-fiber) fusion-spliced to a conventional single-mode fiber (SMF). Thanks to the large differential refractive index of the Ge-fiber sensing element, a reasonably small free spectral range (FSR) of 18.6 nm is achieved even with an as short as 0.9 mm Ge-fiber that may help us increase the measurement accuracy especially in point sensing applications and, at the same time, keep large measurement temperature range without overlapping reading problem. Experimental results show that high sensitivity of 89.0 pm/°C is achieved and the highest measurement temperature is up to 500°C.

Temperature-insensitivity gas pressure sensor based on inflated long period fiber grating inscribed in photonic crystal fiber

We demonstrated an inflated long period fiber grating (I-LPFG) inscribed in a pure-silica photonic crystal fiber (PCF) for high-sensitivity gas pressure sensing applications. The I-LPFG was inscribed by use of the pressure-assisted CO₂ laser beam-scanning technique to inflate periodically air holes of a PCF along the fiber axis. Such an I-LPFG with periodic inflations exhibits a very high gas pressure sensitivity of 1.68 nm/MPa, which is one order of magnitude higher than that, i.e., 0.12 nm/Mpa, of the LPFG without periodic inflations. Moreover, the I-LPFG has a very low temperature sensitivity of 3.1 pm/°C due to the pure silica material in the PCF so that the pressure measurement error, resulting from the cross-sensitivity between temperature and gas pressure, is less than 1.8 Kpa/°C in the case of no temperature compensation. So the I-LPFG could be used to develop a promising gas pressure sensor, and the achieved pressure measurement range is up to 10 MPa.

Laser-machined microcavities for simultaneous measurement of high-temperature and high-pressure

Laser-machined microcavities for simultaneous measurement of high-temperature and high-pressure are demonstrated. These two cascaded microcavities are an air cavity and a composite cavity including a section of fiber and an air cavity. They are both placed into a pressure chamber inside a furnace to perform simultaneous pressure and high-temperature tests. The thermal and pressure coefficients of the short air cavity are ∼0.0779 nm/°C and ∼1.14 nm/MPa, respectively. The thermal and pressure coefficients of the composite cavity are ∼32.3 nm/°C and ∼24.4 nm/MPa, respectively. The sensor could be used to separate temperature and pressure due to their different thermal and pressure coefficients. The excellent feature of such a sensor head is that it can withstand high temperatures of up to 400 °C and achieve precise measurement of high-pressure under high temperature conditions.

Ultra-high temperature chirped fiber Bragg gratings produced by gradient stretching of viscoelastic silica

By applying a suitable quadratic temperature distribution at a temperature within the viscoelastic softening region for silica, a regenerated chirped grating with bandwidth of 9.8 nm is produced from a uniform grating using post strain-tuning under load. Simulated and experimental results are in good agreement.

Regenerated distributed Bragg reflector fiber lasers for high-temperature operation

This Letter presents distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) fiber lasers for high-temperature operation at 750°C. Thermally regenerated fiber gratings were used as the feedback elements to construct an erbium-doped DBR fiber laser. The output power of the fiber laser can reach 1 mW at all operating temperatures. The output power fluctuation tested at 750°C was 1.06% over a period of 7 hours. The thermal regeneration grating fabrication process opens new possibilities to design and to implement fiber laser sensors for extreme environments.

Regeneration of fiber Bragg gratings under strain

The effect of strain on both the index modulation, Δn(mod), and average index, Δn, during grating regeneration within two types of fibers is studied. Significant tunability of the Bragg wavelength (λ(B)>48 nm) is observed during postannealing at or above the strain temperature of the glass. The main reason for the grating wavelength shift during annealing with load is the elongation of the fiber. As well, the observed Moiré interference cycling through regeneration indicates the presence of two gratings.

Temperature and strain characterization of regenerated gratings

Both temperature and strain characterization of seed and regenerated gratings with and without post annealing is reported. The high temperature regeneration has significant impact on thermal characterization and mechanical strength of gratings while the post annealing has little effect. The observed difference is evidence of viscoelastic changes in glass structure.

Intermodal coupling of supermodes in a twin-core photonic crystal fiber and its application as a pressure sensor

In this paper, we experimentally demonstrated the fabrication and hydrostatic pressure characteristics of a twin-core photonic crystal fiber (TC-PCF). Mode couplings in the TC-PCF for x- and y-polarizations were analyzed simultaneously using group effective index of guiding modes. The output spectrum of the TC-PCF was modulated due to the combined couplings of the two polarizations. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time to measure hydrostatic pressure through the dual-polarization mode coupling in a TC-PCF. The measured sensitivity of the pressure sensor was -21 pm/MPa. The length of the TC-PCF used for pressure measurement was 20 cm, which is much shorter than pressure sensor based on PM-PCF, and does not require any external polarizing components, meaning that it is a good candidate for compact pressure sensor.

Production of optical notch filters with fine parameter control using regenerated fiber Bragg gratings

A new method to create a controlled notch filter for attenuation of signals based on regenerated fiber Bragg gratings is experimentally demonstrated. A fine adjustment of the notch depth is achieved by controlling the time of regeneration phenomenon in strongly saturated Bragg gratings written in standard ITU G.652 single-mode fiber. This method can used to produce tailored notch filters for several photonic applications, such as optical RF filtering, subcarrier processing or radio over fiber systems.

Distributed high-temperature pressure sensing using air-hole microstructural fibers

We present spatially resolved Rayleigh scattering measurements in different polarization-maintaining (PM) fibers for high-temperature pressure sensing. The pressure-induced birefringence in the fiber cores is interrogated using polarization-resolved frequency-swept interferometry. The pressure responses of a PM photonic crystal fiber and a twin-air-hole PM fiber are investigated for a pressure range of 0 to 13.8 MPa (0-2000 psi) at room temperature and at temperatures as high as 800 °C. The proposed sensing system provides, for the first time to our knowledge, a truly distributed pressure-sensing solution for high-temperature applications.

Strain-insensitive temperature sensing with a dual polarization fiber grating laser

In this paper, a strain-insensitive temperature sensor based on a dual polarization fiber grating laser is demonstrated. The laser is fabricated by inscribing two wavelength-matched Bragg gratings in an Er-doped fiber. It emits single-longitudinal-mode output in wavelength domain and generates a RF-domain signal as a beat note between the two polarization modes. A temperature sensor has been exploited by monitoring the beat frequency. The measured temperature sensitivity is -78.46 kHz/°C. Theoretical analysis suggests that the temperature response is a result of both the differences in thermo-optic coefficient and thermal expansion between the core and cladding. In contrast, the sensor is almost insensitive to applied axial strain. We found that the strain insensitivity is due to the compensation between the strain-induced birefringence change and the effect of the elongation/material index change. The proposed sensor can be applied for reliable and precise measurement of temperature independently, towards the applications in structural integrity, oil-well monitoring, aerospace engineering, and process control.

Fiber Bragg grating sensors for harsh environments

Because of their small size, passive nature, immunity to electromagnetic interference, and capability to directly measure physical parameters such as temperature and strain, fiber Bragg grating sensors have developed beyond a laboratory curiosity and are becoming a mainstream sensing technology. Recently, high temperature stable gratings based on regeneration techniques and femtosecond infrared laser processing have shown promise for use in extreme environments such as high temperature, pressure or ionizing radiation. Such gratings are ideally suited for energy production applications where there is a requirement for advanced energy system instrumentation and controls that are operable in harsh environments. This paper will present a review of some of the more recent developments.