Magnetic Field Sensor Based on a Combination of a Microfiber Coupler Covered with Magnetic Fluid and a Sagnac Loop

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel magnetic field sensor based on a microfiber coupler (MFC) combined with a magnetic fluid (MF) in a Sagnac loop formed from a polarization maintaining fiber (PMF). Thanks to the small (~2.6μm) waist diameter of the MFC, the resulting interference is strongly influenced by the presence of the MF and this leads to the desirable high sensitivity of the structure to the applied magnetic field. The maximum magnetic field sensitivities of −100pm/mT and −488pm/mT have been experimentally demonstrated with the PMF lengths of 75cm and 20cm respectively in the range of magnetic field strengths from 0 to 200mT. The dependence of the magnetic field orientation on the performance of the proposed sensor was also examined. The proposed magnetic field sensor is advantageous for applications requiring higher sensitivity over a wide magnetic field range

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