Novel Knob-integrated fiber Bragg grating sensor with polyvinyl alcohol coating for simultaneous relative humidity and temperature measurement

A novel high performance optical fiber sensor for simultaneous measurement of relative humidity (RH) and temperature based on our newly designed knob-integrated fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The knob-shaped taper followed by an FBG works as a multifunctional joint that not only excites the cladding modes but also recouples the cladding modes reflected by the FBG back into the leading single mode fiber. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film is plated on the fiber surface by dip-coating technique as a humidity-to-refractive index (RI) transducer, and affects the intensity of reflected cladding modes by way of evanescent fields. By monitoring the intensity and wavelength of the reflected cladding modes, the RH and temperature variance can be determined simultaneously. Experimental results show an RH sensitivity of up to 1.2 dB/%RH within an RH range of 30-95%, which is significantly better than previously reported values. And the temperature sensitivity of 8.2 pm/degrees C could be achieved in the temperature range of 25-60 degrees C. A fast and reversible time response has also been demonstrated, enabling to pick up a humidity change as fast as 630 ms. The capability of simultaneous measurement of RH and temperature, the fast response, the reusability and the simple fabrication process make this structure a highly promising sensor for real-time practical RH monitoring applications. (C)2015 Optical Society of America