ALD thin ZnO layer as an active medium in a fiber-optic Fabry-Perot interferometer

A novel optical fiber sensor of temperature using a thin ZnO layer fabricated by atomic layer deposition (ALD) is demonstrated for the first time. The thin ZnO layer was grown on the face of a standard optical telecommunication fiber SMF-28 and operates as a Fabry-Perot interferometer sensitive to temperature. The interferometer characterization was made in the temperature range extending from 50 to 300 °C with resolution equal to 1 °C. The output signal was analyzed by measurement of the shift of the maxima in spectral pattern. The sensitivity of temperature measurement is about 0.05 nm/°C. Furthermore, very good linearity of the sensor was achieved with correlation coefficient R2 = 0.9984.