Polyvinyl alcohol coated photonic crystal optical fiber sensor for humidity measurement

A polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) coated photonic crystal optical fiber (PCF) sensor has been proposed as a relative humidity (RH) sensor. It was fabricated by collapsing the holes of PCF at both ends to form a Michelson interferometer with cladding mode excitation. PVA was dip coated onto the sensor and the interference shift was measured when the sensor was exposed to varying RH. The sensor with 9% (w/w) coating showed a high sensitivity of 0.60 nm/%RH, displayed little hysteresis, high repeatability, low cross-sensitivity to temperature and ammonia gas and stability over 7 days of testing. A rise/fall time of 300/500 ms was achieved respectively.