Product Code: ICA12_N101

Femtosecond Laser Inscribed Fiber Devices and Their Sensing Applications - Invited Presentation - 30 Minute Presentation
Authors:
Qiying Chen, Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography, Memorial Univ. of Newfoundland; St. John's NL Canada
Ping Lu, Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography, Memorial Univ. of Newfoundland; St. John\'S NL Canada
Liqiu Men, CREAIT Network, Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography, Memorial Univ. of Newfoundland; St. John\'S NL Canada
Presented at ICALEO 2012

Micro-/nano-structured optical fibers have received significant attention for their applications in optical signal processing, telecommunication, and sensing. We report our recent study on femtosecond laser inscribed fiber devices and their sensing applications. By taking advantages of the change in the refractive index of a fiber core induced by a femtosecond laser, different types of in-line fiber devices, such as fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometers and long period gratings, have been realized in standard single-mode optical fibers. We will discuss the properties of these fiber devices and their dependences on the fabrication parameters and device specifications. Different factors influencing the sensing responses of these fiber devices on environmental parameters have also been investigated, including selection of operation wavelength, configuration of periodic structures, and length of the inscribed feature. These femtosecond laser inscribed fiber devices possess significant advantages of high degree of integration, compact in-line measurement, versatility, and low-cost, in addition to the well-known merits of immunity to electromagnetic interference and the possibility of distributed measurement over a long distance.