• Acta Photonica Sinica
  • Vol. 52, Issue 12, 1206004 (2023)
Wei DENG1、2、*, Pan DAI2, Feng WANG2, Hantian GE2, and Xiangfei CHEN2
Author Affiliations
  • 1College of Network and Communication,Nanjing Institute of Information Technology,Nanjing 210023,China
  • 2College of Engineering and Applied Sciences,Nanjing University,Nanjing 210023,China
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    DOI: 10.3788/gzxb20235212.1206004 Cite this Article
    Wei DENG, Pan DAI, Feng WANG, Hantian GE, Xiangfei CHEN. FBG Sensor System without Wavelength Correction Based on REC-DFB Tunable Laser[J]. Acta Photonica Sinica, 2023, 52(12): 1206004 Copy Citation Text show less

    Abstract

    With the rapid development of optical fiber communication and optical fiber sensing, the Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensor has become one of the fastest growing and most widely used optical fiber sensors. Owing to the FBG sensor has many advantages in terms of compact size, low cost, wavelength-encoded, anti-electromagnetic interference, easy multiplexing and so on, it has attracted great interests in the field of sensing and been widely used in medical healthcare, pressure detection, battery safety condition and building structural health monitoring. FBG sensors demodulate parameters such as strain, vibration and temperature by detecting the changes of FBG reflection wavelength, with the aid of core technology of laser source and demodulation method. However, the current Tunable Distributed Feedback (DFB) lasers for optical communication applications often have narrow tuning range and low tuning speed, and require additional auxiliary wavelength reference when directly used for FBG sensor demodulation system, which makes the system complex and affects its practicability. Therefore, there is still no tunable laser source with simple structure and low cost that is specifically suitable for FBG sensing systems.In this paper, a wavelength correction-free FBG sensing system was proposed to identify the wavelength changes and demodulate the temperature changes of the FBG sensor without wavelength correction of the wavelength-swept DFB laser based on Reconstruction Equivalent Chirp (REC) technique. As one of the most significant wavelength tunable laser sources, the DFB semiconductor laser has the characteristics of high reliability, low noise, fast response, high output power, good repeatability, and simple tuning scheme. Compared with many other tunable lasers with different realization schemes, the fabrication process of DFB laser is the best choice for both cost and applicability. The DFB laser used in this paper was designed and fabricated using a special process method-REC technique. By sampling the seed grating with uniform period, the low-cost submicron holographic exposure technique of laser chip fabrication can achieve the same wavelength accuracy as the high-cost nanometer electron beam lithography technique while retaining its intrinsic characteristics. When a tunable DFB laser is selected as the laser source for an FBG temperature sensing system, the temperature information can be demodulated by reading the voltage signal of the optical signal reflected by the FBG through the Photodetector (PD). In the wavelength-swept-based FBG sensing demodulation system, the only data that can be obtained directly from the Oscilloscope (OSC) is the optical intensity of the FBG reflection spectra and the corresponding time in the sweeping cycle of the DFB laser. In order to accurately analyze the external environment changes measured by the FBG sensor from these data, it is necessary to calibrate the relationship between wavelength and time during the wavelength-swept process of DFB laser in advance. Firstly, the instantaneous wavelength is calibrated by the calibration method based on Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI), and the relationship between wavelength and time is obtained. Then in the FBG temperature sensing system based on tunable laser, the FBG sensor is placed in the thermostatic bath with a constant temperature accuracy of 0.1 ℃. In the experiment, the tunable REC-DFB semiconductor laser was used as the wavelength-swept laser source. After the optical signal passed through the circulator, it acted on the FBG sensor for temperature sensing, and then the FBG reflected optical signal was received by the PD and recorded by the OSC. By using the characteristic that the reflected optical signal reaches maximum when the laser wavelength coincides with the reflection central wavelength of the measured FBG, and then using the relationship between wavelength and time in the laser sweeping cycle that has been calibrated, the wavelength corresponding to the maximum output signal of the FBG demodulation system is extracted. Finally, by detecting the wavelength offset of the reflected FBG, the measured changes of external temperature can be linearly demodulated even when the laser wavelength changes are nonlinear.Experimental results show that the proposed wavelength-correction-free FBG sensing system can perform accurate temperature detection in the range of 200 ℃, and the coefficient of determination (R2) of linear fitting relationship between wavelength and temperature is 0.995 6. The linearity of the measured wavelength and temperature is good, with the 1-R2 of only 0.004 4. The laser source of sensing system can be tuned up to 2.5 nm with 1 kHz sawtooth wave modulation, and no additional wavelength correction device is required for the measurement process.
    Wei DENG, Pan DAI, Feng WANG, Hantian GE, Xiangfei CHEN. FBG Sensor System without Wavelength Correction Based on REC-DFB Tunable Laser[J]. Acta Photonica Sinica, 2023, 52(12): 1206004
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