1
Simultaneous measurement of refractive index
and temperature base on three-beam
interferometric fiber-optic
Feifei Shi, Chun-Liu Zhao*, Ben Xu, Yi Li, D. N. Wang
 measurement 1.34-1.42 RIU and a temperature sensitivity of 10
Abstract—A solution refractive index (RI) and temperature
simultaneous measurement sensor based on three-beam
interferometric fiber-optic were demonstrated. The fringe
contrast and the wavelength of the interference will vary with the
RI and the temperature of the solution, respectively.
Experimental results indicate that proposed three-beam
interferometric presents a RI sensitivity of 57.24 dB/RIU in the
measurement 1.3415-1.4320 RIU and a temperature sensitivity of
10 pm/°C in the range of 30 °C-70 °C. The minimum resolution of
RI can be detected is 1.7×10-4/RIU.
Index Terms—three-beam interferometric; fiber optical
sensors; refractometer
I. INTRODUCTION
F iber-optics refractive index (RI) sensors have been widely
developed for applications in chemical and biological
fields due to their intrinsic advantages[1-6], such as high
sensitivity, fast response, compact size, the potential for remote
sensing and immunity to electro-magnetic interferences. There
are several ways to implement RI sensing, such as using a
long-period fiber grating (LPFG)[7], the tilt fiber Bragg grating
(TFBG), a partial cone-shaped FBG, etc. Those transmission
structures present good RI sensitivity. However, solution RI
changes with temperature, so it is very important to achieve
simultaneous measurement of RI and temperature.
In this paper, we demonstrate a refractive index and
temperature simultaneous measurement system based on
three-beam interferometric fiber-optic. It is a reflection type
interferometer which shows great convenience in biological
applications due to its particular reflective operation mode than
transmission interferometers. The fringe contrast of the
interference spectrum is employed to measure solution RI and
the wavelength shift is used to respond to temperature change.
Experimental results show that proposed three-beam
interferometric presents a RI sensitivity of 57.24 dB/RIU in the
This work was supported by in part by the International Technological
Cooperation Program of Zhejiang under Grant 2013C24018, the National
Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61108058.,
Feifei Shi, Chun-Liu Zhao, Ben Xu, Yi Li, and D. N. Wang are with the
Institute of Optoelectronic Technology, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou
310018, China (e-mail: 392237045@qq.com; zhchunliu@hotmail.com;
xuben@cjlu.edu.cn; yli@cjlu.edu.cn; dnwang@cjlu.edu.cn ).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org
pm/°C in the range of 30 °C-70 °C. The minimum resolution of
-4
RI can be detected is 1.7×10 /RIU. The proposed sensor
presents a compact size and simple fabrication, making it an
alternative candidate as a smart refractometer in chemical and
biological applications.
II. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AND PRINCIPLE
The principle of the sensor can be described by the ray
transfer matrix method. The normalized reflected light intensity
of the three-beam interference can be expressed as [8]:
I | + + |
=
| |
= + −2 cos ∅ +
2 cos ∅ − 2 cos(∅ + ∅ ) (1)
where E0 is the electric field component of incident light; E1, E2
and E3 are electric field components of the reflected light of the
three surfaces that re-coupled into the single-mode fiber,
respectively. R1, R2eff, and R3eff denote the effective reflectivity
of the three reflecting surfaces, respectively. R3eff is directly
related to the refractive index of the outside environment.
Effective reflectivity relates to reflectance of every surface,
transmittance, cavity loss, and coupling efficiency. ∅ and
∅ represent the corresponding phase difference related to the
air gap and the GI-MMF respectively. When the light
propagating in the fiber core of the SMF encounters the air gap,
a part of light will be reflected by the two ends of the air gap,
respectively. Another part of light through the air gap load into
the GI-MMF core and is reflected by the GI-MMF’s end, as
shown in Fig (a). The three beams recombine in the SMF to
interfere with each other. Solution RI variation leads to the
fringe contrast of the three beams interference varying. And as
the solution temperature changes, the wavelength of three
beams interference will shift. By monitoring the wavelength
shift and he fringe contrast changing, the simultaneous
measurement of temperature and RI is achieved.
Fig.1(b) shows the schematic of the RI and temperature
simultaneous measurement sensor, which includes an amplified
spontaneous emission(ASE) optical source as a broadband light
source (BBS),a circulator, a three-beam interferometric
fiber-optic structure and an optical spectrum analyzer(OSA).
The proposed sensor head are based on the periodic focusing
effect of graded-index multimode fiber (GI-MMF) and the
three-beam interferometer. The GI-MMF has a core diameter of
62.5 μm. Firstly, the GI-MMF was chemically corrosion by 40%
 2

hydrofluoric acid (HF) solution[9]. The corrosion time was

about one minute to obtain a microscale hole in the fiber tip. -20
The corrosion fiber tip was fusion spliced to a single-mode 1.3415
fiber (SMF) to form an air gap. Then the GI-MMF was cleaved 1.3530

reflection intensity(dB)
to form the three reflective surface. 1.3610
-25 1.3715
1.3806
1.3905
1.4021
1.4132
-30
1.4205
1.4320

-35
1500 1520 1540 1560 1580
wavelength(nm)
(a) Fig. 3 The reflection intensity spectra at the RIU from 1.3415-1.4320.

-20
1.3415
1.3530

Reflection intensity/dBm
1.3610
-22 1.3715
1.3806
1.3905
1.4021
-24 1.4132
(b) 1.4205
1.4320

-26
1520 1521 1522 1523 1524 1525
Wavelength/nm
Fig. 3 The reflection intensity spectra at the RIU from 1.3415-1.4320(local
amplication).

8 y = -57.239x + 85.096
(c)
7 R2 = 0.9984
Fig. 1. (a)The experiment schematic of sensing system.(b)The three-beam
interferometric fiber-optic structure.(c)The sensor head’s picture in microscope.
6
SNR

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 5

As expected, the intensity at the wavelength of the
interference minimum varies with the solution RI[10], as
shown in Fig.2. Fig. 3 is the local amplification of Fig.2. The
solution RI measurement was taken with a range of
1.3415-1.4320 at room temperature 22.5 °C. We put the sensing
head in RI solution, the reflection intensity of the interference
varies with RI of the solution. Figure 4 shows the change is
linear, the fitting function is y = −57.239x + 85.096, and the
fitting degree was 0.9984. The RI sensitivities for the
demodulation of the intensity was 57.24dB/RIU. The OSA with
a 0.01dB measurement precision was used in our experiments,
so the RI precision could reach about 1.7×10-4/RIU.
4
3
1.34 1.36 1.38 1.40 1.42 1.44
RI
Fig. 4 Relationship between the SNR and solution RI.
In order to investigate the temperature property of the system,
the sensor was immersed in the same solution at deferent
temperature. Fig.5 shows the optical spectra when the sensor in
water at the temperature of 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70°C. The
wavelength of the interference has a red shift when the
temperature increases. Fig.6 is the local amplification of Fig.5.
The wavelength of the interference as a function of the
temperature of the solution is shown in Fig. 7. Over the range
from 30°C-70°C, the fitting function is y = 0.0123x + 1521.6
and the fitting degree was 0.9998.
 3

IV. CONCLUSION
The fitting results show that the wavelength shift is 0.5 nm A novel simple sensor based on three-beam interferometric
and the temperature sensitivity is 12.3pm/°C. It should be note fiber-optic structure has been demonstrated for simultaneous
that the reflective intensity varies weakly with the temperature measurement of RI and temperature. The sensor operated by
because the RI of the solution is affected by the temperature monitoring the he wavelength shift and he fringe contrast
slightly. changing, the sensitivities were 57.24dB/RIU when the
solution RI from 1.3415 to 1.4320 and 12.3pm/°C when the
-20 30 temperature from 30°C-70°C in water.
40
50
60
reflection intensity(dB)

70
-25
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1522.4 y=0.0123x+1521.6
R2=0.9998
wavelength(nm)

1522.2

1522.0

30 40 50 60 70

Temperature(oC)
Fig. 7 Relationship between the wavelength and temperature.