Development of Highly Sensitive and Wide Dynamic Range Fiber-Optic Probe-Type Temperature Sensor Using Thermochromic-Compound-Containing Sensing Membrane

A fiber-optic probe-type temperature sensor based on a localized surface plasmon resonance mechanism for measuring, monitoring, and analyzing temperature is herein proposed. To fabricate the fiber-optic probe sensor, we prepared a rhodamine-B-containing sensing membrane by mixing it with polyvinyl chloride and N,N-Dimethylacetamide. It was then deposited on a gold nano-particle-coated fiber-optic probe. We have also evaluated the performances of the two conducting polymer-based fiber-optic probe sensors. Experiments were conducted to demonstrate the performance of the proposed fiber-optic probe sensor over a dynamic range of temperature variations, i.e., 10-100 degrees C. The sensitivity and linearity of the proposed sensor was 0.65 nrn/ C and 0.94, respectively. In addition, we designed and evaluated a side-polished fiber-optic temperature sensor using a thermochromic compound (rhodamine B) and observed excellent sensing performance. The performance of the proposed temperature sensor was compared with that of other fiber-optic temperature sensors, including surface plasmon resonance sensors and a Bragg grating. The proposed sensing system was shown to provide more effective sensing performance.