Fiber Optic Current Sensor Based on Special Spun Highly Birefringent Fiber

Abstract

A fiber optic current sensor based on a polarization-rotated reflected interferometer has been constructed. A special spun highly birefringent fiber is designed and achieved for the sensor by heating and spinning commercial linearly birefringent fiber. In contrast with conventional fibers, the fiber integrates a function of a quarter wave plate. Particularly, fabricating and working principle of the current sensor head using the fiber are expounded. The sensor achieves an accuracy with 0.5% and good linearity shown in temperature dependence (a temperature drift of 0.008%/ <formula formulatype="inline" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex Notation="TeX">$^{\circ}{\rm C}$</tex></formula> ) over a temperature range 40 <formula formulatype="inline" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex Notation="TeX">$^{\circ}{\rm C}$</tex></formula> –70 <formula formulatype="inline" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex Notation="TeX">$^{\circ}{\rm C}$</tex></formula> . Further, under simple temperature compensation, the sensor accuracy is within <formula formulatype="inline" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex Notation="TeX">${\pm}{0.1\%}$</tex> </formula> over in a wide range of current and temperature ranges.