Modulated fiber ring laser and its application in high-sensitivity temperature sensors

Abstract

This work presents an experimental demonstration of a scheme based on an internally modulated fiber ring laser for high-sensitivity temperature sensing. The attained temperature resolution has been as low as ± 2pm even when a commercial FBG with a sensitivity of 10 pm/°C was used. Thus, a fivefold improvement in the temperature sensor resolution can be achieved when compared to a simple FBG interrogation scheme. In addition to this, the measuring range could be selected only by changing the frequency modulation of the fiber ring laser. This technology also allows to triple the photodiode bandwidth unambiguously when temperature or strain measurements are carried out, which is a remarkable achievement in term of cost reduction.