A study on the development of transmission-type extrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometric optical fiber sensor

The conventional reflection-type extrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometric (EFPI) optical fiber sensor has good sensitivity and resolution compared with other types of optical fiber sensors, However, they have the disadvantage that the distinction of strain direction of EFPI is difficult because of measurement method by only fringe counting. This paper presents the newly developed transmission-type EFPI (TEFPI) optical fiber sensor, which has been improved by additional functions, and whose measuring system differs from that of the reflection-type EFPI optical fiber sensors using a single-mode fiber (SMF) and multimode (MMF) fibers as light guides and reflectors, respectively. The output signal of the TEFPI optical fiber sensor was analyzed with the uniform plane wave-based model, the SMF power distribution-based model and the splice loss-based model; the analyzed signals were then verified experimentally. Based on the results of analysis, the TEFPI optical fiber sensor was fabricated using two single-mode fibers connected to the light source and optical receiver; this was then used in strain measurement. The strain measured by the TEFPI optical fiber sensor was compared with that measured by the electric strain gauge.