Highly sensitive PDMS-filled Fabry–Perot interferometer temperature sensor based on the Vernier effect

Abstract

A highly sensitive temperature sensor is demonstrated experimentally, which is fabricated based on a Fabry–Perot interferometer (FPI) filled with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The sensor’s sensitivity is −0.653 nm/°C by utilizing the thermal expansion effect of PDMS, which has been greatly improved compared to that of the traditional FPI temperature sensor. Moreover, in order to further improve the sensitivity, a scheme where two parallel FPI structures are used to form the Vernier effect is proposed, which are a sensing FPI and reference FPI, respectively. Such a temperature sensor based on the FPI filled with PDMS and the Vernier effect exhibits a high temperature sensitivity of 17.758 nm/°C. Meanwhile, the proposed sensors show the advantages of high sensitivity, simplicity, and low cost.