Femtosecond laser fabricated all-optical fiber sensors with ultrahigh refractive index sensitivity: modeling and experiment

All-optical fiber sensors based on ultracompact fiber inline Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) are fabricated by side-ablating a U-shape microcavity in a single-mode optical fiber with the fiber core partially removed using femtosecond (fs) laser pulses, in which the two light paths are accordingly formed in the remaining D-type fiber core and the U-shape microcavity. Beam propagation method (BPM) analysis is utilized to illustrate the dependences of good transmission spectra on parameters including the ablation depth, ablation length and the refractive index of U-shape micocavity, which gives some guidelines to optimize parameters for fs laser micromachining and predicts RI (refractive index) sensitivities within given RI ranges. The modeling results of ultrahigh RI sensitivities for gases and solutions are -3243.75 +/- 0.65nm/RIU (refractive index unit) and -10789.29 +/- 18.91nm/RIU, respectively. In RI testing experiments, the sensor exhibits ultrahigh RI sensitivities of -3754.79 +/- 44.24nm/RIU with refractive indices ranging from 1.0001143 to 1.0002187 by testing different mixture ratios of N-2 and He gases, and -12162.01 +/- 173.92nm/RIU with refractive indices ranging from 1.3330 to 1.33801 by testing different concentrations of sucrose solutions, which is essentially in agreement with the modeling results. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America