Optical Instrumentation

FIBER OPTIC SENSOR PRINCIPLES: Fiber optic sensors consist of an

optical source (LEDs, Lasers, Laser diodes etc.) optical fiber, sensing
element (transducer), optical detector and electronic processing unit
(Optical spectrum analyzer, wave analyzer, oscilloscope etc.).
These are the basic reasons for the birth of fiber optic sensors. Due to its
small size, low cost and ease of fabrication leading it to replace traditional
sensors which were used frequently before the birth of fiber optic sensors.
Further there are many points why fiber optic sensors are used in place of
traditional sensors which are listed below:
 Due to ease in fabrication in the form of different structures, including
composite materials with least interference due to small size and
cylindrical geometry.
 Due to its light weight.
 Due to its high sensitivity.
 Due to incapability to conduct electrical current the sensor is unaffected
by electrical noise and the heat resistant type fiber units enables to
detecting high temperature.
 Due to its free nature towards electromagnetic interference and radio
frequency interference.
 Due to its ability towards remote sensing.
 It has also multiplexing capability to build up sensing network such as a fiber
optic amplifier allows more than 100 types of special fiber units.
 It has flexibility also which enables easy installation in limited space such as
space between machines.
 Extremely compact sensor head allows for easy detection of extremely small
targets.
 It has a wide dynamic range.
 Due to its reliable operation.
 Due to its compact nature.
 Due to its capability to monitor a wide range of physical and chemical
parameters.
 Due to its chemically inert nature.
CLASSIFICATION OF FIBER OPTIC SENSORS:
Fiber optic sensors can be classified under three categories.
On the basis of their
1) Sensing location.
2) Operating principle.
3) Application.
4) Response to the measurement point.

These three classes are further sub divided as following;

1) On the basis of sensing location-
(a) Intrinsic
(b) Extrinsic
2) On the basis operating principle-
(a) Based on intensity
(b) Based on phase
(c) Based on wavelength
(d) Based on polarisation
 3) On the basis of their application –
(a) Physical sensors
(b) Chemical sensors
(c) Bio-medical sensors
4) On the basis of response to the measurement point-
(a) Point to point sensors
(b) Multiplex sensors
(c) Distributed sensors

INTRINSIC FIBER OPTIC SENSORS:

In such type of sensors, sensing takes place within the fiber itself. These type of
sensors have their dependency on the optical fiber properties itself to convert an
environmental action into a modulation of the light beam passing through it.
Virtually, any environmental effect can be converted to an optical signal to be
interpreted
PRESSURE SENSOR:
In such type of sensors a fiber is sandwiched between a pair of toothed plates
to induce micro bending .When pressure is applied to these toothed pairs,
there is a redistribution of guided power between modes of fiber occurs, which
changes the power at output end .Once we calibrate such change in optical
power with applied pressure we can easily use such system as a pressure
sensor.
EXTRINSIC FIBER OPTIC SENSORS:
In such type of sensors, sensing takes place in a region outside of the fiber and
essentially fiber serves as a conduit for the to and fro transmission of light to the
sensing region efficiently and in a desired form. These sensors may be used
strictly as information carriers that lead up to a black box to impress information
on a light beam that propagates to a remote receiver. The black box may contain
mirrors, a gas or liquid cell ,a cantilevered arm or dozens of other mechanisms
that may generate, modulate or transform a light beam. The most important
advantage of using these sensors is that their ability to reach places which seems
to be unreachable.
The best example of this sensor is the inside temperature measurement of the aircraft jet
engine that uses a fiber to transmit a radiation into a radiation pyrometer, which is
located outside of the engine. In the same way, these sensors can also be used to
measure the internal temperature of the transformers. These sensors provide excellent
protection of measurement signals against noise corruption. The following figure shows
the basic concept of the extrinsic fiber optic sensor.
INTENSITY BASED FIBER OPTIC SENSORS:
These type of sensors use multimode fibers having large core size. They
require more light to gather into it.
Above fig. shows the vibration sensor that consists of two optical fibers held
in close proximity to each other. When light is injected into one of the optical
fiber, the light expand into a cone of light whose angle depends on their
difference ‘d’. These types of sensors faces many limitations regarding
various losses such as losses due to connectors and splices, micro bending
losses, macro bending losses and misalignment of light sources and
detectors. To overcome these losses intensity based fiber optic sensors
employ dual wavelength. One of the wavelengths is used for calibration of
all the errors due to the undesired intensity variations by bypassing the
sensing regions.
Fig: Intensity based optical fiber sensor
INTENSITY TYPE FIBER OPTIC SENSORS USING
MICROBENDING:

When a fiber is bent there may be losses arising due to this bending. This
bending is called micro bending. Thus, the output light intensity is
proportional to the amount of micro bending. Therefore, by detecting the
changes of output light intensity, the micro bending can be measured so that
sensor can be used proper.
INTENSITY TYPE FIBER OPTIC SENSOR USING EVANSCENT
WAVE COUPLING:
When light propagates along a single mode fiber , it is not totally confined to
the core reason but extends into the surrounding cladding region, this
phenomenon is called evanescent wave phenomenon. This phenomenon is
used to fabricate fiber optic components, e.g. directional coupler. The coupling
intensity between two fibers depends on the distance between the two fiber
cores. When light is being launched into one of the fibers, it propagates
towards the second fiber core which is placed close proximity so that the
evanescent wave of the first fiber is within the region of second fiber. This
makes the coupling of coupling of evanescent wave. Therefore, by monitoring
the intensity change of the second fiber, the change in the environment can be
sensed.
PHASE MODULATED FIBER OPTIC SENSORS:
External perturbations changes the phase of the light field. This phase change could be
taken into account at the time of formation of fiber optic sensors so that the detection
should be made .The field which is being detected modulate the optical phase of light
passing through the fiber. On comparing the phase of the light in the signal fiber to that
in reference fiber one may detect the phase modulation interferometrically. So,
interferrometric techniques are required to convert phase change into intensity change.
The most commonly used interferometers are Mach-Zehnder, Michelson, Fabry Perot,
Sagnac polarimetric and grating interferometers.
FIBER OPTIC GYROSCOPE:
Single mode fiber optic interferometric sensor which is finding wide scale
application is the ‘Fiber Gyroscope’. This device is based on the classical Sagnac
ring interfrometer. The Sagnac effect, i.e. the phase shift induced between two
light beams travelling in opposite direction around a fiber coil. When the coil is
rotating about an axis perpendicular to the plane of the coil.
FIBER OPTIC GYROSCOPE (Contd.):
The Sagnac effect, also called Sagnac interference, named after French
physicist Georges Sagnac, is a phenomenon encountered in interferometry that is
elicited by rotation. The Sagnac effect manifests itself in a setup called a ring
interferometer or Sagnac interferometer. A beam of light is split and the two
beams are made to follow the same path but in opposite directions. On return to
the point of entry the two light beams are allowed to exit the ring and
undergo interference. The relative phases of the two exiting beams, and thus the
position of the interference fringes, are shifted according to the angular
velocity of the apparatus.
FIBER OPTIC CURRENT SENSOR:
For the measurement of direct current we use fiber optic current sensors. A
single ended optical fiber around the current carrying conductor which utilizes
the magneto-optic effect (Faraday Effect) is being used. FOCS measures
unidirectional or bidirectional current up to 6000A within 1% of the measured
value.
Fiber Optic Current Sensors (FOCS) (Contd.)
Magneto-optic effect refers to physical interaction between light and
magnetic matter. When a beam of light enters a magnetic substance,
the properties of output light could be modulated by the light-
substance interaction, such as polarization state, spectrum, phase
and intensity of light.
WAVELENGTH MODULATED FIBER OPTIC SENSORS:
Such type of sensors based on the detection of change in wavelength of light.
It uses a broadband source, a wavelength modulator or measurend (i.e.
analyte), a form of spectrometer (using prisms, gratings or interference
filters), a detector (single photo diode or array) and signal processing unit.
The sensitivity characteristics of the detector, the inherent resolution of the
spectrometer, mechanical stability of the modulation unit and the
spectrometer, and the capability of the signal processing unit are required in
this type of sensors. Wavelength detection is relatively easy if the spectral
changes results from the changes in chemical indicator dyes, fluroescence,
phosphorescence or black body radiations.
Fig: Wavelength based (black body) fiber optic sensor
The above figure shows the wavelength based fiber optic sensors i.e. black
body sensor. In this sensor a black body cavity is placed at the end of an
optical fiber. When the temperature rises inside the cavity it starts to glow and
act as a light source. The combination of narrow band filters with detectors are
then used for profile determination of black body curve .These sensors have
been widely used in temperature measurement of few degree centigrade under
intense R F fields. The most important characteristics of such type of sensors is
high sensitivity towards temperature.
Fig: Bragg grating sensor
FREQUENCY MODULATED FIBER OPTIC SENSORS:
There are very few frequency modulated fiber optic sensors. This is
because of the frequency modulation of light occurs under a limited
range of physical conditions .It is most importantly based on Doppler
Effect. There are few other circumstances under which frequency of
light is modulated. These included luminescence and Raman
scattering. Vibration sensors are the optically self –resonant micro
beam oscillators that are driven and sensed by a single multimode
optical fiber
CHEMICAL SENSORS:
Chemical sensors are used for pH measurement, gas analysis, spectroscopic
studies etc. The field of application of fiber sensors in analytical chemistry greatly
increased when other kind of optical spectroscopy were coupled with the fiber
optic technique.
As a result, sensing is no longer restricted to measure parameters that changes
the transmission of a fiber, but can be extended to numerous Organic, Inorganic,
clinical and Biomedical analytes which have an intrinsic colour or fluorescence for
which indicators are known or which give rise to any kind of measurable change
in optical system. These are referred to as extrinsic fiber sensors. Both intrinsic
and extrinsic FOCS are typically used for in situ measurements. A chemical
sensor is a device that can be used to measure the concentration or activity of a
chemical species in a sample. It operates by transporting light by wavelength or
intensity to provide information about analytes in the environment surrounding
the sensors.
Fig: Two common fiber optic chemical sensors designs
(a) Distal type probes
(b) Evanescent wave type
An evanescent wave is defined as a small portion of light that
extends out of an optical fiber or waveguide due to total internal
reflection. An evanescent wave is a type of wave that propagates in a
specific direction, decays exponentially, and has a rapidly decaying
amplitude
BIOSENSORS:
Biosensors are used in bio-medical application like measurement of blood
flow, glucose content etc. Broad research and development activities are
progressing in the area of fiber optics biosensors (FOBS). Fiber optic
biosensor are divided into two – the first sensor which is based on bio
catalyzed reaction and the other which is based on selecting binding
reaction. The term biosensors are occasionally applied to all kind of
sensors suitable for sensing biological system, for example to biomedical
pH and oxygen obtrudes.
Fiber Optic bio-sensors:
1. Based on catalyzed reaction. 2. Based on binding reaction.
A bio-catalyzed reaction, also known as enzymatic catalysis, is a chemical
reaction that uses enzymes or whole cells to convert a precursor molecule into a
target product.
A binding reaction in a biosensor occurs when a target molecule binds to a
biological macromolecule, such as an enzyme, antibody, or protein, in a device
called a biosensor.

STRUCTURE OF BIOSENSOR:
Bio reorganization Elements- Bio molecule (enzyme, micro-organisms, stand of
DNA) produced by interaction of an analyte with an interface •Interface – Surface
of transducer immobilized bio elements. •Transducing Elements —Electrochemical,
acoustic, Piezo-electrical and optical etc.

BIOSENSOR═ Bio recognition molecule /Bioreceptor +Transducer

RECEPTORS:
The bio receptors are given below
• Enzyme
• Tissues
• Antibody
• Cofactors
• Membranes
• DNA
• Organelles
• Peptide
• Cells
• Micro organisms
TRANSDUCERS:
Transducers are of two types
1) Chemical
2) Physical
• Transformation • Electrochemical
• Coupling • Amperometric
• Potentiometric
• Conductiometric
• Piezo-electric
• Colormetric
• Acoustic
• Optical
for bio catalytic biosensors, an isolated enzyme is immobilized within the
sensing region of an optical fiber .The selective bio catalytic reaction is
catalyzed as the analyse approaches the immobilized enzyme and a
product of this reaction is monitored through fiber optic probe.
A bioreceptor is a biological molecule that can specifically
recognize and bind to a target analyte.
APPLICATIONS OF FIBER OPTIC SENSORS:
There are various applications of fiber optic sensors, few of which are
listed below-
• Application to high temperature sensing.
• Application to crack monitoring.
• Application to cable and FRP (fiber reinforced polymer) monitoring.
• Application to bridge monitoring.
• Application to moisture monitoring.
• Application to welding residual monitoring.
• Application to high current measurement.
• Application to high pressure sensing.
• Application to measuring small vibrations.
• Application in the oil and gas industry.
• Application to monitoring pipe lines.
• Application in medicine.
• Application to load monitoring of power transmission line.