An optical fiber magnetic field sensor based on fiber spherical structure interferometer coated by magnetic fluid

Abstract:

A novel magnetic field sensor based on optical fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) coated by magnetic fluid (MF) is proposed. The MZI consists of two spherical structures formed on standard single mode fiber (SMF). The interference wavelength and the power of the sensing structure are sensitive to the external refractive index (RI). Since RI of the MF is sensitive to the magnetic field, the magnetic field measurement can be realized by detecting the variation of the interference spectrum. Experimental results show that the wavelength and the power of interference dip both increase with the increase of magnetic field intensity.