We describe the use of high birefringence fibre forming a differential path interferometer for heterodyne fibre optic sensing applications. We firstly recover a low frequency strain amplitude of 1με at 1Hz applied to a fibre Bragg grating sensor demonstrating a noise limited resolution of around 100nε/√Hz. Secondly we interrogate a Mach-Zehnder interferometer sensor using the dual wavelength technique to detect a change in the Mach-Zehnder OPD of 200μm.
We investigate the use of an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) to interrogate both fibre Bragg grating (FBG) and interferometric sensors. A broadband light source is used to illuminate both the FBG and interferometric sensors. Reflected spectral information is directed to an AWG with integral photodetectors providing 40 electrical outputs. To interrogate interferometric sensors we investigated the dual wavelength technique to measure the distance of a Fabry-Perot cavity, which produced a maximum unambiguous range of 1440μm with an active sensor. Three methods are described to interrogate FBG sensors. The first technique makes use of the reflected light intensity in an AWG channel passband from a narrow bandwidth grating, giving a usable range of 500με and a dynamic strain resolution of 96nε/√Hz at 30Hz. The second approach utilises wide gratings larger than the channel spacing of the AWG; by monitoring the intensity present in corresponding AWG channels an improved range of 1890με was achieved. The third method improves the dynamic range by utilising a heterodyne approach based on interferometric wavelength shift detection providing a dynamic strain resolution of 17nε/√Hz at 30Hz.
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