High-sensitivity simultaneous pressure and temperature sensor using a superstructure fiber grating

In this paper, we show that both pressure and temperature can be measured simultaneously by using a high-sensitivity fiber sensor. This sensor has a superstructure fiber grating (SFG) encapsulated in a polymer-half-filled metal cylinder, which has two openings on opposite sides of the wall of the polymer, to sense the pressure. The sensed pressure is transferred into axial extended-strain. The variation of pressures and temperatures will cause the variation of the center-wavelength and reflection of the SFG simultaneously due to the optical response of the SFG composed by the fiber Bragg grating (FBG) as well as long-period grating (LPG). Thus, the sensor can be used for measuring pressure and temperature simultaneously. It has a pressure sensitivity of 3 times 10^-2 MPa^-1, better than that using only a bare FBG. Temperature sensitivities in both 0.02 nm per degC and 0.16 dBm per degC have experimentally been obtained. This fiber sensor can be applied for boiler as well as for the underwater depth measurement