A relative humidity sensing probe based on etched thin-core fiber coated with polyvinyl alcohol

A relative humidity (RH) sensing probe based on etched thin-core fiber (TCF) coated with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated.This sensor is constructed by splicing a section of TCF with a single mode fiber (SMF), then part of the TCF's cladding is etched by hydrofluoric acid solution and finally the tip of TCF is coated with PVA. Experimental results demonstrate that this sensor can measure the ambient RH by demodulating the power variation of reflection spectrum. The power demodulation method make this sensor can ignore the temperature cross-sensitivity and have an extensive application prospect.