A weakly coupled multi-core fibre-based Michelson interferometer composed of an in-fibre coupler

Abstract

A compact temperature measuring device using a weakly coupled multi-core fibre in the Michelson interferometer structure is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The device is manufactured by an easy and simple splicing approach which consists of a multi-core fibre segment and an in-fibre coupler. In-fibre coupler is made of a cascaded single-mode fibre and multi-core fibre balls. It enhances the interference phenomenon of light energy between the central core and the outer cores of a multi-core fibre. The sensor shows a high quality fringe visibility of about 14–18 dB in the wavelength spectrum. Multi-core structure presents multi-path interferences and exhibits a maximum temperature sensitivity of 70.6 pm/°C in the range of 20–90°C with an insensitive response to the refractive index in the range of 1.334 to 1.354. The device has the advantages of compact size, easy manufacturing, and it solves cross-sensitivity between temperature and refractive index making it an authentic real-time temperature monitoring solution.