Palladium coated ball lens for optical fibre refractometry based hydrogen sensing

Sahar A. Chowdhury; Ricardo Correia; Daniel Francis; Simon J. Brooks; Ben J. S. Jones; Alexander W. J. Thompson; Jane Hodgkinson; Ralph P. Tatam

doi:10.1117/12.2059604

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2 June 2014 Palladium coated ball lens for optical fibre refractometry based hydrogen sensing

Sahar A. Chowdhury, Ricardo Correia, Daniel Francis, Simon J. Brooks, Ben J. S. Jones, Alexander W. J. Thompson, Jane Hodgkinson, Ralph P. Tatam

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Proceedings Volume 9157, 23rd International Conference on Optical Fibre Sensors; 9157AP (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2059604
Event: OFS2014 23rd International Conference on Optical Fiber Sensors, 2014, Santander, Spain

Abstract

An optical fibre refractometer using a ball lens as a sensor head has been developed and characterised. Light from a superluminescent diode is directed to an optical fibre sensor head and the intensity of the returned beam gives a measure of the refractive index of the medium at the ball lens fibre tip. A second beam is used to reference the intensity measurements. The system is capable of detecting changes in refractive index with a resolution of 0.003 RIU. The ball lenses have been coated with an 80nm thick layer of palladium and the potential use of this system as a micromirror hydrogen sensor is demonstrated. This technique offers a simple sensor head arrangement, with a large signal sampling area compared with that of a bare fibre.

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Sahar A. Chowdhury, Ricardo Correia, Daniel Francis, Simon J. Brooks, Ben J. S. Jones, Alexander W. J. Thompson, Jane Hodgkinson, and Ralph P. Tatam "Palladium coated ball lens for optical fibre refractometry based hydrogen sensing", Proc. SPIE 9157, 23rd International Conference on Optical Fibre Sensors, 9157AP (2 June 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2059604

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