All-PM fiber loop mirror interferometer analysis and simultaneous measurement of temperature and mechanical vibration

Abstract

In this work, a new all-polarization maintaining (PM) fiber loop mirror interferometer is proposed and validated as temperature and mechanical vibration sensor. The scheme employs the arms of a PM coupler as communication fibers, fused with a relative angle of 45° to the sensing fiber. The length of the arms is equal so their contribution in canceled, obtaining a total transfer function exclusively defined by the sensing fiber. The capabilities of the system as sensor are tested, achieving mechanical vibration and temperature sensing without crosstalk between measurands. In this manner, vibration frequencies up to 1.5 kHz have been monitored using a commercial interrogator with a scan rate of 1 Hz and a technique based on the fast Fourier transform. Additionally, the immunity of the setup to external perturbations in the communication fibers is studied and compared to the conventional approach.