Accurate and dynamic control of the operating point of an interferometric optical sensor to produce the highest sensitivity is crucial in the demodulation of interferometric optical sensors to compensate for manufacturing errors and environmental perturbations. A grating-assisted operating-point tuning system has been designed that uses a diffraction grating and feedback control, functions as a tunable-bandpass optical filter, and can be used as an effective demodulation subsystem in sensor systems based on optical interferometers that use broadband light sources. This demodulation method has no signal-detection bandwidth limit, a high tuning speed, a large tunable range, increased interference fringe contrast, and the potential for absolute optical-path-difference measurement. The achieved 40-nm tuning range, which is limited by the available source spectrum width, 400-nm/s tuning speed, and a step resolution of 0.4 nm, is sufficient for most practical measurements. A significant improvement in signal-to-noise ratio in a fiber Fabry-Perot acoustic-wave sensor system proved that the expected fringe contrast and sensitivity increase.

© 2003 Optical Society of America

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Citation lists with outbound citation links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Article level metrics are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

Related Journal Articles

• Large increase in photosensitivity through massive hydroxyl formation (OL)
• Reconstructing arbitrary strain distributions within fiber gratings by time–frequency signal analysis (OL)
• Unbalanced versus balanced operation in an optical coherence tomography system (AO)
• Spectral response characterization of an InP:Fe photorefractive wavelength-self-tunable single-sideband filter (OL)
• Optical Sensor Interrogation with a Blazed Fiber Bragg Grating and a Charge-Coupled Device Linear Array (AO)

Related Conference Papers

• High resolution optical fiber-integrated resonant biosensors
• High Dynamic Strain Measurements and Aliasing Suppression Capability Using a PDA-Based Spectrometer Design
• Distributed Strain Measurement with High Spatial Resolution Using Fiber Bragg Gratings and Optical Frequency Domain Reflectometry
• Demultiplexing of Interferometrically Interrogated Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors: FFT vs MUSIC
• Novel Integrated Optical Fiber Bragg Grating Assisted Surface Plasmon-Polariton Refractive Index Sensors