Miniature interferometric humidity sensors based on silica/polymer microfiber knot resonators

In this paper, two fiber-optic interferometric humidity sensors based on silica/polymer microfiber knot resonators (SMKR/PMKR) are reported. These tiny humidity sensors are directly fabricated by using silica/polymer microfibers without any humidity-sensitive coating. The silica microfiber knot resonator sensor has a humidity sensitivity of ∼12 pm/10%-RH within a linearity range from 15%-RH to 60%-RH, while the polymer microfiber knot resonators sensor has a humidity sensitivity of ∼88 pm/10%-RH, with a linearity range from 17%-RH to 95%-RH. The temporal response of the PMKR sensor is <0.5 s. Such types of humidity sensors have advantages of easy fabrication, fast response, extremely compact size, stable and low cost, they would find potential applications in micro-scale humidity sensing.