Surface-plasmon-resonance-based optical-fiber micro-displacement sensor with temperature compensation

Abstract

Micro-displacement measurements play a crucial role in many industrial applications. Aiming to address the defects of existing optical-fiber displacement sensors, such as low sensitivity and temperature interference, we propose and demonstrate a novel surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-based optical-fiber micro-displacement sensor with temperature compensation. The sensor consists of a displacement-sensing region (DSR) and a temperature-sensing region (TSR). We employed a graded-index multimode fiber (GI-MMF) to fabricate the DSR and a hetero-core structure fiber to fabricate the TSR. For the DSR, we employed a single-mode fiber (SMF) to change the radial position of the incident beam as displacement. The resonance angle in the DSR is highly sensitive to displacement; thus, the resonance wavelength of the DSR shifts. For the TSR, we employed polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as a temperature-sensitive medium, whose refractive index is highly sensitive to temperature; thus, the resonance wavelength of the TSR shifts. The displacement and temperature detection ranges are 0–25 µm and 20–60◦C; the displacement and temperature sensitivities of the DSR are 4.24 nm/µm and −0.19 nm/◦C, and those of the TSR are 0.46 nm/µm and −2.485 nm/◦C, respectively. Finally, by means of a sensing matrix, the temperature compensation was realized.