Study of hydrogen diffusion in boron/germanium codoped optical fiber

Presents a novel technique for studying the dynamics of hydrogen diffusion in optical fiber. It shows that the hydrogen contributes directly to the effective refractive index of the fiber by its dielectric susceptibility. It provides a simple theory that relates the refractive index change to the total hydrogen concentration in the fiber core. It also deduces that there is a small contribution of less than 5% to the refractive index through the photoelastic effect. A low-finesse fiber Bragg grating Fabry-Perot interferometer allows the determination of the evolution of the hydrogen concentration in situ. The experimental results obtained for isothermal and isobaric diffusion between 45/spl deg/C and 90/spl deg/C yielded values for the parameters of Arrhenius-type expressions for the diffusivity, permeability, and solubility of hydrogen in germanium/boron codoped single-mode fiber. In addition, least squares curve-fits for outdiffusion yielded the gas-phase mass-transfer coefficient as a function of temperature.     

Distributed fibre-optic loss sensor with chirped Bragg grating based on transmission-reflection analysis

A novel distributed fibre-optic loss sensor with chirped Bragg grating based on the analysis of transmitted and reflected powers is presented. The localisation of loss region with error equal to /spl plusmn/2 mm along the 10 cm chirped grating for 0.7 dB induced loss is demonstrated.     

Physico-Chemical Studies of the CaO-Ethylene Glycol System. Determination of free lime in industrial products

Optimum conditions for a conductometric determination of free lime in industrial products, using alternating current conductometry are elaborated. The analysis of the variation of the conductivity in dependence on concentration in the temperature (°C) range [25–100] allowed the determination of dissociation parameters of calcium glycolate viz. dissociation constant and equivalent conductivity at infinite dilution, which in turn led to the determination of the calcium glycolate concentration from the measured conductivity. The conductometric determination of free lime is only influenced by the presence of SrO. The water content of the solvent (ETG) must not exceed 0.5%.     

Chirped fiber-optic Bragg grating interrogator in a multiplexed Bragg grating sensor configuration

This paper presents a chirped grating interrogator for fiber Bragg grating sensors. The interrogator uses the wavelength dependence of the phase group-delay response of a chirped fiber Bragg grating to determine the Bragg wavelength of the sensor. The sensitivity of the interrogator is determined by the selection of the grating length and the bandwidth. The experimental results demonstrated strain measurements over a range of more than 10 000 /spl mu/m per meter. Multiplexing can be achieved by using an arrayed-waveguide grating that allows the interrogation of more than one grating sensor with a single chirped grating.     

Optical Heterodyne Method for Amplitude and Phase Response Measurements for Ultrawideband Electrooptic Modulators

We present an optical heterodyne method for measuring amplitude and phase responses of electrooptic modulators over an ultrawide frequency range. The microwave input signal for the modulator under test (MUT) is produced by heterodyning the outputs of two lasers. The output of one of these two lasers is modulated by a subcarrier to produce dual tones separated by twice the subcarrier frequency. The output of the MUT is optically filtered to extract the components carrying the amplitude and phase information. Experimental results of measurements made up to 50GHz are presented     

Merged Sagnac-Michelson interferometer for distributed disturbancedetection

An interferometric technique is described to detect and locate perturbations along an optical fiber. This distributed sensor has a position dependent response to time-varying disturbances such as strain or temperature. These disturbances cause a phase shift which is detected and converted to spatial information, The sensor consists of a Sagnac interferometer merged with a Michelson interferometer. This is achieved by a frequency selective mirror in the center of the Sagnac-loop. The sensor is illuminated by two light sources with wavelengths λ₁ and λ₂, respectively. The mirror reflects λ₁ and transmits λ₂, causing the interferometer to operate as a Michelson at wavelength λ₁ and as a Sagnac at wavelength λ₂. Any time-varying perturbation on, the fiber will, result in a signal at λ₂ proportional to the product of the rate of phase change caused by the perturbation and the distance of the perturbation relative to the position of the mirror. The output of the Michelson interferometer at wavelength λ₁ is proportional to the phase change caused by the unknown perturbation. By dividing the output of the Sagnac interferometer by the time rate of change of the Michelson interferometer signal, the position of the disturbance relative to the mirror is located. Results obtained with a 200 m-distributed fiber sensor are discussed     

Polarization effects in the Sagnac-Michelson distributeddisturbance location sensor

An analysis, based on Jones calculus, is presented of polarization effects in the merged Sagnac-Michelson interferometric sensor for distributed disturbance detection. The nature of birefringence biasing in the Sagnac interferometer is clarified: the cosine-response of the Sagnac interferometer can be biased to a sine-response by introducing birefringence with retardation equal to π/2 in the Sagnac-loop. In addition, the input light should be linearly polarized and both the direction of polarization and the optical axes of the birefringence region should be oriented at π/4 with respect to the plane of the fiber-loop     

Photosensitivity measurement in optical fibre with Bragg grating interferometers

A new technique based on two low-finesse fibre Bragg grating Fabry-Perot interferometers to study photosensitivity in optical fibre is presented. Phase evaluation using the Fourier spectra allows precise determination of the evolution of the refractive index with accumulated fluence. Results are given for different germanium/boron codoped fibres and for hydrogen-loaded fibres.     

Mach-zehnder and modified sagnac-distributed fiber-optic impact sensor

An interferometric technique is described to detect and locate perturbations along an optical fiber. This distributed sensor has a position-dependent response to time-varying disturbances such as strain or temperature. A modified Sagnac interferometer configuration that incorporates an additional coupler and a mirror allows separation of the Sagnac and the Mach-Zehnder signals. Operation of the new configuration was verified experimentally with a 100-m-long sensing fiber. The discrepancy between actual and measured locations of disturbances applied to the fiber did not exceed 0.6 m.