Design and numerical analysis of high-reflective film used in F-P sapphire optical fiber high-temperature sensor

Abstract

Purpose

The Fabry-Perot sapphire optical fiber sensor is an excellent choice for high-temperature sensing in civil and military fields, such as oil exploitation, engine and turbine. The purpose of this paper is to study the high-reflective film system withstanding high temperature in Fabry-Perot sapphire optical fiber high-temperature sensor. To improve the performance of the sensor and reduce the difficulty of signal acquisition, one of the key ways is to enhance the normalized light intensity of F-P sensor, which can be achieved by coating the high-reflective film system on the fiber end.

Design/methodology/approach

The high-reflective film system can be achieved by a multilayer film with alternating ZrO₂ and Al₂O₃ film layers whose refractive indexes are different. In addition, the optimum film alternating sequences and the influence of the number of film layers, incident angle and temperature should be obtained by numerical analysis.

Findings

With the increase of the number of film layers, the reflectivity rises gradually and the change trend is more and more gentle. A minimum of the spectral reflectivity will occur at a certain incident angle depending on the design of the periodic multilayer system. Temperature affects the reflectivity of high-reflective film system. The normalized light intensity of the F-P sensor coated with high-reflective film system enhances greatly which is helpful to the signal demodulation. The temperature response of the F-P sensor is mainly determined by the characteristics of the F-P cavity.

Originality/value

Higher reflectivity, lower cost and easy signal acquisition are the most important features of the introduced high-reflective film system for the Fabry-Perot sapphire optical fiber high-temperature sensor.

Citation

Lin, Q., Wu, Z., Zhao, N., Jiang, Z., Zhang, Q., Tian, B. and Shi, P. (2019), "Design and numerical analysis of high-reflective film used in F-P sapphire optical fiber high-temperature sensor", Sensor Review, Vol. 39 No. 2, pp. 162-170. https://doi.org/10.1108/SR-01-2018-0015