Sensors (Jan 2020)

Enhancing Temperature Sensitivity of the Fabry–Perot Interferometer Sensor with Optimization of the Coating Thickness of Polystyrene

  • Tejaswi Tanaji Salunkhe,
  • Dong Jun Lee,
  • Ho Kyung Lee,
  • Hyung Wook Choi,
  • Sang Joon Park,
  • Il Tae Kim

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/s20030794
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 20, no. 3
p. 794

Abstract

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The exploration of novel polymers for temperature sensing with high sensitivity has attracted tremendous research interest. Hence, we report a polystyrene-coated optical fiber temperature sensor with high sensitivity. To enhance the temperature sensitivity, flat, thin, smooth, and air bubble-free polystyrene was coated on the edge surface of a single-mode optical fiber, where the coating thickness was varied based on the solution concentration. Three thicknesses of the polystyrene layer were obtained as 2.0, 4.1, and 8.0 μm. The temperature sensor with 2.0 μm thick polystyrene exhibited the highest temperature sensitivity of 439.89 pm °C−1 in the temperature range of 25−100 °C. This could be attributed to the very uniform and thin coating of polystyrene, along with the reasonable coefficient of thermal expansion and thermo-optic coefficient of polystyrene. Overall, the experimental results proved the effectiveness of the proposed polystyrene-coated temperature sensor for accurate temperature measurement.

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