A Review of Multimode Interference in Tapered Optical Fibers and Related Applications

Advances in Tapered Optical Fiber Sensor Structures: From Conventional to Novel and Emerging

Optical fiber sensors based on tapered optical fiber (TOF) structure have attracted a considerable amount of attention from researchers due to the advantages of simple fabrication, high stability, and diverse structures, and have great potential for applications in many fields such as physics, chemistry, and biology. Compared with conventional optical fibers, TOF with their unique structural characteristics significantly improves the sensitivity and response speed of fiber-optic sensors and broadens the application range. This review presents an overview of the latest research status and characteristics of fiber-optic sensors and TOF sensors. Then, the working principle of TOF sensors, fabrication schemes of TOF structures, novel TOF structures in recent years, and the growing emerging application areas are described. Finally, the development trends and challenges of TOF sensors are prospected. The objective of this review is to convey novel perspectives and strategies for the performance optimization and design of TOF sensors based on fiber-optic sensing technologies.

Ultrasensitive Optical Fiber Sensors Working at Dispersion Turning Point: Review

Optical fiber sensors working at the dispersion turning point (DTP) have served as promising candidates for various sensing applications due to their ultrahigh sensitivity. In this review, recently developed ultrasensitive fiber sensors at the DTP, including fiber couplers, fiber gratings, and interferometers, are comprehensively analyzed. These three schemes are outlined in terms of operation principles, device structures, and sensing applications. We focus on sensitivity enhancement and optical transducers, we evaluate each sensing scheme based on the DTP principle, and we discuss relevant challenges, aiming to provide some clues for future research.

Sensitivity investigation of cascaded abruptly tapered fiber based on the Vernier effect

In this paper, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a sensitivity-enhanced temperature sensor by cascading two non-adiabatic tapered fibers (NATFs) based on the Vernier effect. In addition, we investigate the influence of the presence of the reference arm on the cascaded NATFs and compare the temperature response. The experimental results show that a cascaded NATF configuration in which one NATF acts as a sensing arm and the other acts as a reference arm, achieves a temperature sensitivity of -917p m/^∘ C, which is 13.28 times that of the single NATF (-69p m/^∘ C), while a cascaded NATF configuration in which both NATFs act as a sensing arm attains a temperature sensitivity of 440 pm/°C, which is lower than the configuration with a reference arm. It is confirmed that the synchronous change of the two interferometers will reduce the sensing sensitivity of Vernier effect-based sensors by theory and experiments, and provides guidance for the design of Vernier effect-based sensors.

Numerical Calculation of the Light Propagation in Tapered Optical Fibers for Optical Neural Interfaces

As implantable optical systems recently enabled new approaches to study the brain with optical radiations, tapered optical fibers emerged as promising implantable waveguides to deliver and collect light from sub-cortical structures of the mouse brain. They rely on a specific feature of multimodal fiber optics: as the waveguide narrows, the number of guided modes decreases and the radiation can gradually couple with the environment. This happens along a taper segment whose length can be tailored to match with the depth of functional structures of the mouse brain, and can extend for a few millimeters. This anatomical requirement results in optical systems which have an active area that is very long compared to the wavelength of the light they guide and their behavior is typically estimated by ray tracing simulations, because finite element methods are too computationally demanding. Here we present a computational technique that exploits the beam-envelope method and the cylindrical symmetry of the fibers to provide an efficient and exact calculation of the electric field along the fibers, which may enable the design of neural interfaces optimized to meet different goals.

Femtosecond laser micromachining of an optofluidics-based monolithic whispering-gallery mode resonator coupled to a suspended waveguide

A monolithic lab-on-a-chip fabricated by femtosecond laser micromachining capable of label-free biosensing is reported. The device is entirely made of fused silica, and consists of a microdisk resonator integrated inside a microfluidic channel. Whispering gallery modes are excited by the evanescent field of a circular suspended waveguide, also incorporated within the channel. Thermal annealing is performed to decrease the surface roughness of the microstructures to a nanometric scale, thereby reducing intrinsic losses and maximizing the Q-factor. Further, thermally-induced morphing is used to position, with submicrometric precision, the suspended waveguide tangent to the microresonator to enhance the spatial overlap between the evanescent field of both optical modes. With this fabrication method and geometry, the alignment between the waveguide and the resonator is robust and guaranteed at all instances. A maximum sensitivity of 121.5 nm/RIU was obtained at a refractive index of 1.363, whereas near the refractive index range of water-based solutions the sensitivity is 40 nm/RIU. A high Q-factor of 105 is kept throughout the entire measurement range.

Thermo-Optical Switching Effect Based on a Tapered Optical Fiber and Higher Alkanes Doped with ZnS:Mn

The paper investigates the effect of thermo-optic switching resulting from the hybrid combination of a tapered optical fiber (TOF) with alkanes doped with nanoparticles of zinc sulfide doped with manganese (ZnS:Mn NP). Presented measurements focused on controlling losses in an optical fiber by modification of a TOF cladding by the alkanes used, characterized by phase change. Temperature changes cause power transmission changes creating a switcher or a sensor working in an ON-OFF mode. Phase change temperatures and changes in the refractive index of the alkane used directly affected power switching. Alkanes were doped with ZnS:Mn NPs to change the hysteresis observed between ON-OFF modes in pure alkanes. The addition of nanoparticles (NPs) reduces the difference between phase changes due to improved thermal conductivity and introduces extra nucleating agents. Results are presented in the wide optical range of 550-1200 nm. In this investigation, hexadecane and heptadecane were a new cladding for TOF. The higher alkanes were doped with ZnS: Mn NPs in an alkane volume of 1 wt.% and 5 wt.%. The thermo-optic effect can be applied to manufacture a thermo-optic switcher or a temperature threshold sensor.

Intensity Demodulated Refractive Index Sensor Based on Front-Tapered Single-Mode-Multimode-Single-Mode Fiber Structure

A novel intensity demodulated refractive index (RI) sensor is theoretically and experimentally demonstrated based on the front-tapered single-mode-multimode-single-mode (FT-SMS) fiber structure. The front taper is fabricated in a section of multimode fiber by flame-heated drawing technique. The intensity feature in the taper area is analyzed through the beam propagation method and the comprehensive tests are then conducted in terms of RI and temperature. The experimental results show that, in FT-SMS, the relative sensitivity is −342.815 dB/RIU in the range of 1.33~1.37. The corresponding resolution reaches 2.92 × 10⁻⁵ RIU, which is more than four times higher than that in wavelength demodulation. The temperature sensitivity is 0.307 dB/°C and the measurement error from cross-sensitivity is less than 2 × 10⁻⁴. In addition, fabricated RI sensor presents high stability in terms of wavelength (±0.045 nm) and intensity (±0.386 dB) within 2 h of continuous operation.