Sagnac Interferometer Report

SAGNAC INTERFEROMETER BASED STRAIN SENSOR
1

INTRODUCTION

A fiber optic sensor is a sensor that uses optical fiber either as the sensing element
("intrinsic sensors"), or as a means of relaying signals from a remote sensor to the electronics
that process the signals ("extrinsic sensors"). Fibers have many uses in remote sensing.
Depending on the application, fiber may be used because of its small size, or because
no electrical power is needed at the remote location, or because many sensors can
be multiplexed along the length of a fiber by using light wavelength shift for each sensor, or
by sensing the time delay as light passes along the fiber through each sensor. Time delay can
be determined using a device such as an optical time-domain reflectometer and wavelength
shift can be calculated using an instrument implementing optical frequency domain
reflectometry.
Fiber optic sensors are also immune to electromagnetic interference, and do not conduct
electricity so they can be used in places where there is high voltage electricity or inflammable
material such as jet fuel. Fiber optic sensors can be designed to withstand high temperatures
as well.
INTRINSIC SENSORS
Optical fibers can be used as sensors to measure strain, temperature, pressure and
other quantities by modifying a fiber so that the quantity to be measured the
intensity, phase, polarization, wavelength or transit time of light in the fiber. Sensors that
vary the intensity of light are the simplest, since only a simple source and detector are
required. A particularly useful feature of intrinsic fiber optic sensors is that they can, if
required, provide distributed sensing over very large distances.
Temperature can be measured by using a fiber that has evanescent loss that varies with
temperature, or by analyzing the Raman scattering of the optical fiber. Electrical voltage can
be sensed by nonlinear optical effects in specially-doped fiber, which alter the polarization of
light as a function of voltage or electric field. Angle measurement sensors can be based on
the Sagnac effect.

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Special fibers like long-period fiber grating (LPG) optical fibers can be used for direction
recognition . Photonics Research Group of Aston University in UK has some publications on
vectorial bend sensor applications.
Optical fibers are used as hydrophones for seismic and sonar applications. Hydrophone
systems with more than one hundred sensors per fiber cable have been developed.
Hydrophone sensor systems are used by the oil industry as well as a few countries' navies.
Both bottom-mounted hydrophone arrays and towed streamer systems are in use. The
German company Sennheiser developed a laser microphone for use with optical fibers.
A fiber optic microphone and fiber-optic based headphone are useful in areas with strong
electrical or magnetic fields, such as communication amongst the team of people working on
a patient inside a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine during MRI-guided surgery.
Optical fiber sensors for temperature and pressure have been developed for down hole
measurement in oil wells. The fiber optic sensor is well suited for this environment as it
functions at temperatures too high for semiconductor sensors (distributed temperature
sensing).
Optical fibers can be made into interferometric sensors such as fiber optic gyroscopes, which
are used in the Boeing 767 and in some car models (for navigation purposes). They are also
used to make hydrogen sensors.
Fiber-optic sensors have been developed to measure co-located temperature and strain
simultaneously with very high accuracy using fiber Bragg gratings. This is particularly useful
when acquiring information from small complex structures. Brillouin scattering effects can be
used to detect strain and temperature over larger distances (2030 kilometres)


3

EXTRINSIC SENSORS
Extrinsic fiber optic sensors use an optical fiber cable, normally a multimode one, to
transmit modulated light from either a non-fiber optical sensor, or an electronic sensor
connected to an optical transmitter. A major benefit of extrinsic sensors is their ability to
reach places which are otherwise inaccessible. An example is the measurement of
temperature inside aircraft jet engines by using a fiber to transmit radiation into a
radiation pyrometer located outside the engine. Extrinsic sensors can also be used in the same
way to measure the internal temperature of electrical transformers, where the
extreme electromagnetic fields present make other measurement techniques impossible.
Extrinsic fiber optic sensors provide excellent protection of measurement signals against
noise corruption. Unfortunately, many conventional sensors produce electrical output which
must be converted into an optical signal for use with fiber. For example, in the case of
a platinum resistance thermometer, the temperature changes are translated into resistance
changes. The PRT must therefore have an electrical power supply. The modulated voltage
level at the output of the PRT can then be injected into the optical fiber via the usual type of
transmitter. This complicates the measurement process and means that low-voltage power
cables must be routed to the transducer.
Extrinsic sensors are used to measure vibration, rotation, displacement, velocity, acceleration,
torque, and twisting.

SAGNAC INTERFEROMETER
The interference of two waves occurs because the waves superimpose, forming a
single wave with an amplitude thats either greater or lower than the initial waves. For a
beam of light, many photons are interfering with each other and as the resulting waves are
detected, a pattern emerges that illustrates the various properties of the light. The pattern
changes with the frequency, phase and amplitude of the light. An interferometer measures
differences in the interference pattern to determine certain properties of the light. This can
reveal information about the light source or the effects on the interferometer that caused the
shifting of the interference fringes.
In a Sagnac interferometer, a laser is used whose light is monochromatic and
coherent. Because the beam is of a single frequency, interfering light behaves more

4

predictably and because it is coherent, a phase shift affects the interference in way that can be
measured. The laser is split into two beams of approximately equal power using a beam
splitter and each beam follows a path single path directed by mirrors but in opposite
directions. Once the beams reach the point where they were split, therefore enclosing an area,
they recombine and resulting beam is detected. The setup is shown in figure1.

Figure 1. The half-silvered mirror acts as a beam splitter, resulting in one beam travelling in
one direction and the other beam travelling in the other direction. The two beams are
combined and detected using interferometry where an interference pattern can be analyzed


5

A Sagnac interferometer is usually arranged so that the beams have a triangular or
rectangular trajectory using mirrors, or a circular trajectory guided by the fiber optics.
Rotation of the interferometer changes the paths of the beams because the position of the
point where the beams combine has rotationally shifted relative to the position where the
initial beam split. This causes one of the split beams to have a longer travel time than the
other because they are travelling in a constant medium and therefore have the same speed.
The distance travelled is shifted, as shown in fig 2

Fig 2: This illustrates the effect that the rotation of the system has on the counter
propagating beams. a beam travelling in the direction of rotation ultimately has to travel more
distance than the beam travelling in the direction opposite the rotation


6

Change in travel time of the beam is given by the following equation.
Time difference, t = 4A./v
2

This time difference causes a shift in the interference fringes.
The phase shift = 2vt/ =8A./ v
Where A=4R
2
R is the radius of circular ring
is the angular velocity
v is the speed of light &
is the wavelength of light source used.


7

PROPOSED SYSTEM

FIBER OPTIC STRAIN SENSOR USING SAGNAC INTERFEROMETER

Optical fiber sensors have been developed in different sensing applications due to
their significant advantages, like accuracy, compactness, low cost, and immunity to
electromagnetic waves. Sagnac fiber loop is a kind of optical fiber sensor, which just consists
of a fiber coupler and a section of optical fiber, and it can be used to measure many
parameters, such as strain, temperature, liquid level, and curvature. By adopting different
kinds of fibers, the sensing characteristics of the Sagnac fiber loop are varied. In recent years,
the polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber(PM-PCF)-based Sagnac loop has attracted
much interest. A temperature-independent strain sensor by a highly birefringent PCF-based
Sagnac interferometer has also been presented and a pressure sensor with PM-PCF-based
Sagnac interferometer has been proposed. An elliptical hollow-core photonic bandgap fiber
based on Sagnac configuration with a strain sensitivity of -0.81pm/ has been presented, and
the birefringence of the fiber was measured to be 3x10
-3
. However, all of them used
polarization-maintaining fiber (PMF) or high birefringence (Hi-Bi) fiber inserted into Sagnac
fiber loop.
In our project, a low-birebirefringence PCF based Sagnac loop employed as a strain
sensor is proposed. Due to the low birefringence, just one dip in the wavelength range of
15001600 nm appears. The experimental setup and principle are described in Section I. The
results and discussion are presented in Section II.


8

I. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AND WORKING PRINCIPLE

Fig 3 :Experimental setup strain measurement by using low birefringence photonic crystal
based Sagnac loop

The experimental setup of the strain sensor by the use of the low-birefringence PCF-
based Sagnac loop is shown in Fig 3. It includes a 3-dB single-mode-fiber (SMF) coupler and
a 40-cmlong PCF (NL-1550-NEG-1, Crystal Fiber A/S). The mode field diameter of the PCF
is about 2.8 m, with seven rings of air holes in the cladding, and an attenuation coefficient
in the wavelength range of 15101620 nm is less than 9 dB/km. The Sagnac loop was formed
by splicing the two ends of the PCF to the arms of the 3-dB SMF coupler. The combined loss
of these two splicing points was measured to be about 6 7dB, high due to the mode-field
mismatch. A broadband light which was source was connected to the input of the Sagnac
loop, and the output spectrum was observed with an optical spectrum analyser.
The input light was split by the 3-dB SMF coupler and two counter propagating light
beams were propagated inside the Sagnac loop. When they passed through the PCF and
encountered at the same coupler, the counter propagating light beams introduced the relative
phase difference due to the birefringence property of the PCF. So it led to the minima (dips)
and maxima (peaks) in the output spectrum. The transmission spectrum of the Sagnac loop is
approximately a periodic function of the wavelength.


9

T = [1- Cos () ]/2 (1)
Where = 2L
0
B/is the phase difference; is the operating wavelength;L
0
is the length of
the PCF; and B is the birefringence of the PCF. The wavelength spacing (S) between the
adjacent transmission dips or peaks is given by

S =
2
/(B.L
0
) (2)

A section of PCF is fixed straightly on translation stages with 140-mm separation, employing
as sensing element, and the length of the sensing PCF is denoted as .L When the sensing PCF
was stretched by moving one of the translation stages, the strain applied on the sensing PCF
was varied, which introduced an elongation L(a strain = L/L ) and led to the change of
phase difference ( )
= 2(LB+LB)/ (3)

where B is the variation of birefringence of the PCF caused by photo elastic effect. Then the
wavelength of the dip or peak in the Sagnac output spectrum is changed by
= S /2. (4)
So the change of the strain can be obtained by measuring the wavelength shift of the dip or
peak in the output spectrum.


10

II. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

The transmission spectrum of the low-birefringence PCF-based Sagnac loop at room
temperature of about 25
0
C is shown in Fig. 4

Fig 4: Spectra of input super continuum light (solid line), Sagnac output (dashed line), and
the normalized transmission (dotted line)

Only one dip appears in the spectral range of 15001600 nm. The extinction ratio is
about 21 dB, and the wavelength of this dip can be tunable in the range of 15001600 nm by
tuning a polarization controller which is inserted inside the Sagnac loop. Therefore, this
characteristic could be used as a band stop filter for the C- and L-band. It can be seen from
equation (2) that S will become large when the product of B and L is very small. Thus only
one dip appears in the wavelength range of 15001600 nm. A broadband, super continuum
light source in the experiment. In Fig. 4, two dips appear in the spectral range of 14001700
nm, and the wavelength spacing between the two adjacent dips is about 110 nm. The

11

birefringence value of 5.8x10
-5
was estimated by (2), which is about one or two orders less
than that of PM-PCF or high-birefringence fiber (the order of 10
-4
10
-3
).
When the applied strain was varied from 0 to 2520 by increasing the separation distance
between the two stages, the Sagnac output spectra under different strain levels are shown
Fig.5.

Fig 5 : Transmission spectrum of Sagnac loop under different strain

The wavelength of the dip in the Sagnac transmission spectrum was changed from 1581.76 to
1580.6 nm, corresponding to a total wavelength shift of about 1.16 nm. The wavelength shift
of the transmission dip as a function of strain change is shown in Fig. 6.

12

Fig6: Wavelength shift of the transmission dip versus strain

As can be seen, the wavelength shift of the dip has a linear relationship with the strain
change, and a sensitivity of about -0.457 pm/ was achieved. This strain sensitivity is two
times higher than that of the reported PM-PCF-based Sagnac interferometer. But the
resolution of strain measurement is limited by the 40-pm wavelength error due to the flat-
profile dip, which is calculated to about 87 . The Hi-Bi fiber-based Sagnac sensor had a
small fringe separation, which could lead to the overlap of the fringes when the wavelength
shift is larger than the fringe separation. By comparison, our proposed sensor has a potential
ability to acquire larger measurement range due to the wider fringe spacing.
The influence of temperature on the Sagnac loop was also investigated. The 40-cm
PCF was placed on the temperature-controlled oven which was set to increase from 25
0
C to
75
0
C with a step of 10 C. The wavelength shift versus temperature is shown in Fig. 7


13

Fig 7: Wavelength shift of the transmission dip versus temperature

It shows that the wavelength shift has a linear relationship with the temperature. A
temperature sensitivity of about -80 pm/
0
C was achieved. So the cross sensitivity of the
Temperature on the strain is about 175/
0
C. But the strain experiment was performed in a
temperature-controlled environment, and the temperature variation was less than 0.1
0
C, so
the error of strain measurement induced by temperature is just about 17.5 . Moreover, the
temperature effect on the proposed strain sensor could be compensated by placing a fiber
Bragg grating or a long-period grating outside the Sagnac loop, which can be realized easily.


14

EXISTING SYSTEM I

Fig 8: Sagnac interferometer using SM fiber

Instead of photonic crystal fiber fixed on translational stage here we used single mode
step index fiber and we fixed optical fiber cable on steel scale by using araldite. The setup is
shown above in fig 8.
The experimental setup of the strain sensor by the use of the single mode silica fiber
based Sagnac loop is shown in Fig 8. It includes a 3-dB single-mode-fiber (SMF) coupler and
a 5m long single mode silica fiber. The Sagnac loop was formed by splicing the two ends of
the single mode silica fiber to the arms of the 3-dB SMF coupler. The combined loss of these
two splicing points was measured to be about .3dB. A broadband light which was source was
connected to the input of the Sagnac loop, and the output spectrum was observed with an
optical spectrum analyser.
The input light was split by the 3-dB SMF coupler and two counter propagating light
beams were propagated inside the Sagnac loop. When they passed through the single mode
silica fiber and encountered at the same coupler. Then it will undergo interference, So it led
to the minima (dips) and maxima (peaks) in the output spectrum. The transmission spectrum
of the Sagnac loop is approximately a periodic function of the wavelength.


15

Fig 9: experimental setup


16

Fig 10 : Broadband source and spectrum analyser


17

EXISTING SYSTEM II

Fig 9: strain measurement using laser

We replaced broadband light source with a laser and optical spectrum analyser with a
photo detector. Then measured detector voltage corresponding to different weights. It is
observed that the output voltage decreases as the weight increases. Using the measurement
plotted a graph of weight versus output voltage. The observations and graph are given below.


18

Weight (gm)

Output voltage (mv)
1 262
2 261
5 260
10 254
20 231
50 70

Table 1: weight out put voltage

Fig 10 : weight versus output voltage graph

0
50
100
150
200
250
300
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
o
u
t
p
u
t

v
o
l
t
a
g
e
(
m
v
)

weight (gram)

19

Fig 11: Strain measurement using laser

20

CONCLUSION

For the strain measurement PCF fiber was required. But in our experimental set up we
used single mode step index silica fiber. For silica fiber there is no birefringence property, it
is present in photonic crystal fiber. Broadband source used here has low coherence. To
produce interference by using a low coherent source, fiber must have birefringent property.
So we cannot produce interference effectively in the single mode silica fiber. Also the 3dB
coupler provided was not effectively coupling 50% to the two arms. So we are unable to
produce interference pattern.
So we used laser instead of broadband source and detector for output voltage
measurement. Strain is applied to the fiber by varying the mass. Output voltage is measured
for different values of weights. Output voltage versus weight graph is plotted. From this
graph we can measure strain.


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REFERENCES

1.Strain Sensor Realized by Using Low-Birefringence Photonic-Crystal-Fiber-Based
SagnacLoop By Huaping Gong, Member, IEEE, Chi Chiu Chan, Member, IEEE, Lihan
Chen, and Xinyong Dong
2.G. Sun, D. S. Moon, and Y. Chung, Simultaneous temperature andstrain measurement
using two types of high-birefringence fibers in Sagnac loop mirror, IEEE Photon. Technol.
Lett.,vol. 19, no. 24, pp.20272029, Dec. 15, 2007.
3. D. S. Moon, B. H. Kim, A. Lin, G. Sun, Y. G. Han, W. T. Han, and Y. Chung, The
temperature sensitivity of Sagnac loop interferometer based on polarization maintaining
sidehole fiber, Opt. Express, vol.15, no. 13, pp. 79627967, Jun. 2007.
4. www.sciencemag.org/content/330/6007/1081
5. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=05705926
6. Pressure sensor realized with polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber-based Sagnac
interferometer H. Y. Fu,1,* H. Y. Tam,1 Li-Yang Shao,1 Xinyong Dong,1 P. K. A. Wai,2 C.
Lu,2 and Sunil K. Khijwania3

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