Reflective-Type High Sensitivity Optical Fiber Hydrogen Sensor Based On Enlarged Taper Cascaded With Tilted Fiber Grating

Highly sensitive reflective-type fiber hydrogen sensor based on an enlarged taper cascaded with a tilted fiber grating (TFBG) was proposed. Hydrogen-sensitive Au-Pd nanofilm was coated on the TFBG surface by magnetron sputtering means. By cascading an enlarged taper upstream to the TFBG, cladding modes and Ghost mode of the TFBG could be coupled into the core to form a reflective-type TFBG-based hydrogen sensor. As the hydrogen was absorbed by the Au-Pd nanofilm, the effective refractive index of the cladding of the TFBG will change accordingly, so as to the reflective spectra of the TFBG. The hydrogen concentration was obtained through the intensity changing of the ghost mode in the reflective spectra of TFBG. The proposed sensor showed a high sensitivity of 4.83 dB/% with a calculated LOD of 0.07% for the hydrogen concentration range from 0% to 0.7% at room temperature with the rapid response time of 26 s and recovery time of 40 s, respectively.