Fibre-optic temperature and pressure sensor based on a deformable concave micro-mirror

This article presents a fibre-optic sensor that measures temperature and pressure. Its operating principle is based on the amplitude modulation caused by the variation in the radius of a concave micro-mirror crafted into the end of an SMF optical fibre. In fact, a micro-cavity engraved into the end of the fibre by selective chemical etching is filled with a PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane)-type polymer. Due to surface tension, the polymer micro-drop takes on a hemispheric shape characterised by a certain radius. After polymerisation in an oven at 100 °C for one hour, the hemispheric micro-drop is coated with a thin layer of gold using the vacuum evaporation technique. Typically, concave micro-mirrors can be obtained with bend radii of between 10μm and 30μm. Under the action of a temperature gradient or a variation in pressure, the thickness of the PDMS changes and causes a variation in the bend radius of the micro-mirror. As a result, the light intensity guided by the optical fibre and reflected by the micro-mirror is modulated by the variation in its bend radius. In this configuration, the sensor has a thermo-sensitivity of - 0.08dB/°C with a resolution of 0.13 °C in a range of between 20 °C and 100 °C. It also has a pressure sensitivity of 0.11dB/bar between 10 and 20 bars. The measurements are taken by a reflectometer (OTDR). In addition, the experimental results have been validated by theoretical modelling. This sensor is relatively simple to make and can be used in a wide range of applications, in particular biomedical and industrial ones.