Simulation of U-shaped plastic optical fiber ethanol sensor

Abstract

The prediction of optical loss in different bending diameter of U-shaped POF sensor toward variation of ethanol's refractive indices was investigated using ray-tracing method perform by Zemax software. It can provide information on how the propagation ray is perturbed by different bending diameter of U-shaped POF. There are five designs of POF models were pre-drawn with different bending diameter; 2.0cm, 2.5cm, 3.0cm 3.5cm and 4.0cm. From the results, U-shaped with 2.5 cm bending diameter has shown the most sensitive bending diameter as compared to the rest. Either with the presence of cladding layer or not the sensitivity detected was 0.014 x10(-4) Watts/Vol\%.