HYDROSTATIC PRESSURE SENSOR BASED ON A GOLD-COATED FIBER MODAL INTERFEROMETER USING LATERAL OFFSET SPLICING OF SINGLE MODE FIBER

A novel hydrostatic pressure sensor based on a gold-coated fiber modal interferometer (FMI) is proposed and demonstrated. Two single mode fibers (SMFs) are spliced with a lateral offset which forms a single-end FMI. The single-end FMI is gold-coated to enhance the reflectivity and to avoid the influence of any unwanted light from getting into the sensor. Relative reflection spectra of the proposed FMIs with different sensing SMF lengths or different lateral offsets are experimentally investigated. A high hydrostatic pressure sensor test system is proposed for the testing of the proposed FMI pressure sensor. The performance of a gold-coated FMI pressure sensor based on a 12-mm sensing SMF has been experimentally investigated. The proposed pressure sensor has a sensing range from 0 to 42 MPa and a sensitivity of 53 pm/MPa.