Refractive index sensor based on twisted tapered plastic optical fibers

Abstract

We proposed a refractive index (RI) sensor employing two twisted tapered plastic optical fibers (POFs). The tapered POFs were fabricated by a heating and drawing method and were twisted around each other to form a coupled structure. The sensor consisted of two input ports, a twisted region, and two output ports. The tapered POF could make the light couple from one POF to the other easily. The twisted tapered POFs could constitute a self-referencing sensor, and by monitoring the changes of the coupling ratio, the variations of the external medium RIs could be measured. The RI sensing performances for the sensors with different fiber diameters and twisted region lengths were studied. The sensitivities of 1700%/RIU and -3496%/RIU in the RI ranges of 1.37-1.41 and 1.41-1.44 were obtained, respectively. The sensor is a low-cost solution for liquid RI measurement, which has the features of simple structure and easy fabrication.