Fiber optic temperature sensor using fiber Bragg grating

Mansi Kumaria, Himesh Sarkarb,Krishna Narayan Mishrac

a
NIT Agartala, bNIT Durgapur, cNIT Raipur

ABSTRACT
A fiber optic cable can be used as Temperature sensor using various methods like fiber Bragg grating,
Distributed optical sensing using Raman Scattering effect, interferometric probe etc. This report focuses on
fiber Bragg grating technique. Here using grating, a particular wavelength of light is reflected (Bragg
wavelength) from a band of wavelength that is passed through the optic fiber. The shape of reflectivity curve
with wavelength mainly depends on period, apodization, grating shape, index modulation, length, chirping, and
refractive index. So, with variation in temperature there is a change in refractive index which inturn affects the
Brag wavelength. So by measuring the shift in Bragg wavelength, temperature changes can be measured.

INTRODUCTION
There are many material that varies its properties with respect to temperature and so as an optic fiber. To utilise
their properties as a sensor, their measurement is required provided it has other advantages too. The advantages
of using optic fiber as temperature sensor is-
 Linear scale of measurement
 Lightweight and compact
 High sensitivity
 Long range of sensing
 Long term stability
 Compact due to small diameter and can be embeded in various structure
 Robust and resistant to harsh temperature
 no external electromagnetic effect

In this report simulation is carried out using Optigrating 4.2.2 software for the most effective combination of
parameters among a set of parameters with comparable high sensitivity for a effective output.

FIBER BRAGG GRATING

Fiber Bragg gratings are created by inscribing (periodic or aperiodic) variation of refractive index into the core
of a optical fiber using an intense ultraviolet (UV) source such as a UV laser.
Fiber Bragg Grating is a longitudinal periodic variation of the index of refraction in the core of an optical fiber.
The spacing of this variation (or period) is decided by the wavelength of the light to be reflected. It is basically a
type of distributed brag reflector which is constructed in a short segment of optical fiber that reflects
particular wavelengths of light and transmits all others.
A FBG based sensor system monitors the shift in the wavelength of the reflected signal with respect to changes
in parameters such as temperature, pressure etc. The resulting Bragg condition is:
λ=2 η Λ
Where λ is the Bragg’s wavelength, Λ is the grating period and η is the refractive
index.

SIMULATION
Optiwave Optigrating 4.2.2 is used to simulate the optic fiber. During simulation some of the parameters are
kept constant and some are varied.
The constant parameters are:

PARAMETERS VALUES
Core Width 8µm
Cladding Width 125µm
Grating Period 0.53381599 µm
Index Modulation 6e-005
Segments 10
Reference Temperature 25oC
Micro-strain 1.463
Photoelastic coefficients P-0.121 ,P12-0.27, Poisson
ratio-0.17
 Thermo-optic coefficient 7.7e-0061/oC
Thermal expansion coefficient 8e-0061/oC
Dispersion Enabled

Some parameters are varied keeping others constant at a time such as Temperature varied from -7oC to 57oC
keeping grating shape, average index, chirping and apodization constant at a time. The values are plotted in
Microsoft Excel to obtain the graph between wavelength and normalized reflectivity. Further sensitivity is
calculated for every profile from the maximum reflectivity value, corresponding shift and temperature.
Similarly, other parameters are kept constant and length is varied. In addition to this, the chirping values are
changed keeping all the rest parameters constant and then tapering value varied keeping the rest same.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Case 1

Taking the parameters as uniform index, Gaussian apodization and quadratic chirping

Temperature is varied from -7oC to 57oC for both the grating shapes i.e., rectangular and sine; it is seen that

 Reflectivity for rectangular is greater than sine(at 27oC difference is 0.13364)

 There is shift in the maximum value with increase in temperature
suqg : sine grating shape, uniform index, quadratic chirping and Gaussian apodization

ruqg : rectangular grating shape, uniform index, quadratic chirping and Gaussian apodization

Case 2

Taking the parameters as sine grating shape, uniform index and uniform apodization and varying chirping

Keeping chirping value constant as 0.2

Setting chirping as no chirp, linear, quadratic, square root and cubic there is very slight variation in sensitivity
(Temperature versus Bragg’s wavelength shift)

 Linear and cubic are exactly coinciding

sucg : sine grating shape, uniform index, cubic chirping and Gaussian apodization

sulg : sine grating shape, uniform index, linear chirping and Gaussian apodization

sucg : sine grating shape, uniform index, cubic chirping and Gaussian apodization

suqg : sine grating shape, uniform index, quadratic chirping and Gaussian apodization

susg : sine grating shape, uniform index, square root chirping and Gaussian apodization

Case 3

Taking the parameters as sine grating shape, uniform index and uniform apodization and varying chirping
parameter

The default value of chirping in optigrating is set as 0.2

When the value of chirping is decreased from 0.2 for square root, cube root, linear and quadratic chirping then

 reflectivity increases
 characteristics of the wavelength versus reflectivity tends to Gaussian apodization
 the value becomes almost constant at chirping value 0.01
When the value of chirping is increased from 0.2 then

 wavelength versus reflectivity characteristics starts distorting

 maximum value remains at same wavelength for linear chirping, shifts right for quadratic and
shifts left for cubic

suqu: sine grating shape, uniform index, quadratic chirping and uniform apodization

sulu : sine grating shape, uniform index, linear chirping and uniform apodization
sucu : sine grating shape, uniform index, cubic chirping and uniform apodization

Case 4

Taking the parameters as sine grating shape, uniform index and Gaussian apodization and varying chirping
value

 there is no shift in the wavelength

 there is distortion in the wavelength reflectivity characteristics
Case 5

Taking the parameters as sine grating shape, uniform index, no chirping and Gaussian apodization; and varying
the tapering parameter

The default value of taper’s parameter in optigrating is set as 0.5

 With increase in tapering value reflectivity increases and vice-versa

sung : sine grating shape, uniform index, no chirp and Gaussian apodization

Case 6

Taking the parameters as rectangular grating shape, uniform index and uniform apodization, no chirping and
varying the length of the grating and 1000 steps

On changing the length of grating from 1oooµm to 30,000 µm;

 reflectivity increases on increasing the length

 the maximum value increases almost linearly with length and then becomes almost constant after
20,000 µm
CONCLUSION
 When temperature is varied from -7oC to 57oC the peak of the reflectivity curve shifts linearly
and reflectivity is greater in case of rectangular than sine grating shape
 The sensitivity for all the case differs in the range of femtometers

PROFILE SENSITIVITY
sucg 0.0144922nm/°C
sucu 0.0145313nm/°C
sulg 0.0147266nm/°C
sulu 0.0145315nm/°C
sung 0.0147266nm/°C
sunu 0.0144922nm/°C
suqg 0.0147266nm/°C
suqu 0.0146875nm/°C
susg 0.0146759nm/°C
susu 0.0146875nm/°C

 On changing the chirping value for uniform apodization the graph shifts right for quadratic,
shifts left for square root and cubic and remains same for linear but distorts.
 The reflectivity increases with tapering and length of grating.

REFERENCES
[1]Mechanical Properties of Optical Fibers,Paulo Antunes, Fátima Domingues, Marco Granada and Paulo
André Instituto de Telecomunicações and Departamento de Física, Universidade de Aveiro,Portugal

[2] Temperature-dependent refractive index of silicon and germanium, Bradley J. Frey*, Douglas B. Leviton,
Timothy J. Madison,NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771

[3] Applications of fibre optic temperature measurement,Lars Hoffmanna, Mathias S. Müllera, Sebastian
Krämerb, Matthias Giebelc, Günther Schwotzerc and Torsten Wieduwiltc

[4] Measurement Systems and Sensor Technology, Technical University of Munich, Theresienstr. 90, 80333
Munich, Germany; l.hoffmann@tum.de

[5]Distributed Measurement Systems, Technical University of Munich, Theresienstr. 90, 80333 Munich,
Germany

[6] Institute of Photonic Technology, Albert-Einstein-Strasse 9, 07745 Jena, Germany, Received 30 October
2007