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Gas sensor response time analysis for tapered

porous-clad fibers
a a b
C. D. Singh & B. D. Gupta
a
Department of Physics , Indian Institute of Technology , New Delhi, India
b
Department of Physics , Indian Institute of Technology , New Delhi, 110016,
India E-mail:
Published online: 27 Sep 2006.

To cite this article: C. D. Singh & B. D. Gupta (1995) Gas sensor response time analysis for tapered porous-clad
fibers, Fiber and Integrated Optics, 14:2, 171-177, DOI: 10.1080/01468039508241773

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01468039508241773

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Gas Sensor Response Time Analysis

for Tapered Porous-Clad Fibers
C.D. SINGH
B. D. GUPTA
Department of Physics
Indian Institute of Technology
New Delhi, India
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The detection of gases with the use of A T R spectroscopy in a multimode step-index-

tapered fiber with porous cladding has been described. Geomem'cal optics has been
used to derive an expression for the time-dependent euanescent absorbance as the
gas diffuses through the cladding. The ratio of the radii of core and cladding has
been assumed to be constant throughout the length of the taper. It has been shown
that the relative euanescent absorbance depends on the taper ratio. As the taper ratio
increases, the response time of the sensor decreases.
Keywords absorption, diffusion, evanescent field, optical fiber, response time,
sensor, taper

In recent years, the development of fiber optic evanescent wave absorption sensors
for the detection of various gases has received considerable interest [l-81. This is
because of their several advantages, such as long interaction length, rugged
construction, and the possibility of distributed sensing. These sensors are based on
attenuated total reflection (ATR) spectroscopy, in which the evanescent field
interacts with the gas present in the unclad (sensing) region. In the case of a gas
surrounding the core, the amount of evanescent wave power is low because the
refractive index of the gas is very small compared to that of the core. Thus the
interaction of the gas with the evanescent field is weak, which implies that the
sensitivity of the sensor is poor. To increase the sensitivity, porous materials having
refractive indices slightly less than that of the fiber core have been used as fiber
cladding [71. This increases the evanescent field in the cladding, and because the
cladding is porous, gas diffuses through it and interacts with the evanescent field.
By measurig the power loss, the concentration of the gas present can be deter-
mined.
Recently we proposed a method to further improve the sensitivity of the
evanescent wave absorption sensor for the detection of gases [9]. We considered
the use of a tapered in place of a uniform sensing region. In the case of a tapered

Received 19 September 1994; accepted 30 September 1994.

The authors are grateful to Prof. A. K. Ghatak for constant encouragement. The
present work is partially supported'by a collaborative project on Fiber Optics supported by
Overseas Development Administration (U.K.) through the British Council Division (India).
C . D. Singh is grateful to University Grants Commission (India) for a Senior Research
Fellowship.
Address correspondence to B. D. Gupta, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of
Technology, New Delhi 110016, India. E-mail bdgupta@physics.iitd.ernet.in

171
 172 C. D.Singh and B. D. Gupta

sensing region, the penetration depth of the evanescent field in the cladding is
more than that in the case of uniform fiber [lo-151, which results in an increase in
fractional power in the cladding region. Using modal analysis, we showed that as
the taper ratio increases, the response time of the sensor decreases while its
sensitivity increases. The results of that study were applicable for D t / b 2 > 0.02,
where D is the diffusion coefficient of the gas in the porous cladding, t is the time,
and b is the radius of the porous cladding. In this article, we analyze the
performance of the sensor using geometrical optics. In addition, we choose the
range D t / b 2 < 0.02 for the analysis and show that the response time of the sensor
decreases as the taper ratio increases.

Theory
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Consider an optical fiber that has a porous cladding surrounding the core region.
When a gas comes in the contact with the fiber, it diffuses through the porous
cladding and interacts with the evanescent field. Because the diffusion process is
time dependent, the evanescent absorbance will also be time dependent. For a
uniform sensing region, Ruddy and McCabe [7], using a ray approach, derived the
following expression for the time-dependent normalized evanescent absorbance:

where A,(t) is the absorbance at time t after the gas begins to diffuse into the
porous cladding; A,(m) is its saturation value-that is, the absorbance when a
uniform concentration of the gaseous absorber exists throughout the cladding;
C ( r , t ) is the concentration of the gas in the porous cladding at a distance r from
the axis of the core at any time t ; C(m) is its saturation value; a and b are the radii
of the core and cladding respectively; 0 is the incident angle with respect to the
normal to the core-cladding interface; (01,0,) is the range of incident angle; and
d,, the penetration depth of the evanescent wave, is given by

A
d, =
27.rn,\J(sin2 e - sin2 ec>

where A is the free-space wavelength of the light source used, n1 is the refractive
index of the core, 0, = sin-' n2/n,, and n2 is the refractive index of the porous
cladding. Assuming Fickian diffusion into a cylindrical surface of radius b, the
concentration C ( r ,t >of the gas in a porous cladding is given by [16],
 Fiber Optic Gas Sensor 173

provided that D t / b 2 < 0.02, where D is the diffusion coefficient. Normalizing all
the parameters with respect to the cladding radius b , we obtain

where c = a/b, R = r/b, T = Dt/b2, and

4rrnlb
B=- d(sin2 e - sin2 e,)
h
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It may be noted that Eq. 4 is valid if the diameters of both the core and the
porous cladding in the sensing region are uniform. If the sensing length of the fiber
is tapered, as shown in Figure 1, then one cannot use Eq. 4 because a , b, and 0 are
not constant along the length of the sensing region. To determine the ratio
A,(t)/A,(w) for tapered fiber, we assume that the tapering is linear and that
variation of a and b along the length of the taper is given by
Z
a(z) = a - -(a - a,>
L

b ( z ) = b - L ( b - b,)
L

where a ( z ) and b ( z ) are the radii of the core and cladding at a distance z from the
input end of the taper, a , and b, are the corresponding radii at the output end of
the taper, and L is the length of the taper. In addition, we assume that the ratio
b ( z ) / a ( z ) remains constant throughout the length of the taper. If a guided ray
makes an angle Bi with the axis of the fiber before the input end of the taper, then

tl
b

la
f

Figure 1. Geometry of a taper.

 174 C. D. Singh and B. D. Gupta

it will get transformed to an angle 8,(z) inside the taper through the following
relation [17]:
a ( z )sin e,(d = a sin ei (5)
If the angles are defined with respect to the normal at the interface, then Eq. 5
takes the form

where 8 ( = 90" - 8,) is the angle between the ray and the normal to the interface
before the input end of the taper, e ( z ) is the corresponding angle at a distance z
from the input end of the taper, and R = tan-' { ( a - a,)/L} is the taper angle.
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For (I = 140 pm, L = 10 cm, and taper ratio equal to 2, the taper angle is about
0.04", which is very small and hence can be neglected. With these assumptions, and
neglecting taper angle, we obtain the following expression for the time-dependent
relative evanescent absorbance in the case of a tapered sensing region:

where

and

The integrals in Eq. 7 cannot be evaluated analytically. Therefore to find the value
of A ( t ) / A ( a )we solve them numerically.

Calculations and Discussion

To obtain the variation of relative evanescent absorbance as a function of the
dimensionless parameter To = D , / b 2 ( z = 0) we use the following values of the
parameters: n1 = 1.50, NA = 0.6, A = 3.36 pm, a = 140 pm, b = 150 pm, 8, =
66.5", and L = 10 cm. Most of these parameters have been taken from Ruddy and
McCabe [7]. They used 140-pm core fluoride fiber with a 10-pm thick Teflon
 Fiber Optic Gas Sensor 175

0.8 -
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I
0 0.004 0.008 0 -012 0.016 0.02
TO
Figure 2. Variation of relative absorbance as a function of To for different values of taper
ratio.

cladding (NA = 0.6) to detect the propane at 3.36 p m wavelength. For all the
guided rays launched, 8, = 90". The other angle d1 depends on the taper ratio
through the relation O1 = cos-' (a, cos d,)/a. For taper ratio = 2, its value is
approximately equal to 78.5". The results obtained for different taper ratio (a/a,)
are shown in Figure 2. In the figure, the taper ratio 1 corresponds to the uniform
core and cladding as obtained by Ruddy and McCabe [7]. It can be seen that as the
taper ratio increases, the ratio A(t)/A(m) increases for a given value of To. In
other words, we can say that A ( t ) saturates faster with the increase in the taper
ratio. This implies that the response time of the sensor decreases as the taper ratio
increases. Figure 3 shows the variation of relative absorbance with To for different
values of b and a fixed value of taper ratio. It can be seen from the figure that as b
decreases, the response time decreases. In our earlier studies [9,12-151 we have
shown that the tapering of the fiber core increases the sensitivity of the sensor.
Thus it is advantageous to use a tapered sensing region to obtain a fast response in
addition to high sensitivity.
In the present study, the effects of surface finish and the scattering of
evanescent field from the pores of the cladding have not been considered. How-
ever, these can affect the sensitivity of the sensor. The net effect will depend on
the various parameters, including the amount of the evanescent field present in the
porous cladding. The main reason for not considering them in the analysis is that it
is difficult to quantify their contributions.

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 176 C. D.Singh and B. D.Gupta

1.0r
b = 145pm

150pm
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1
0 0.004 0.008 0.012 0.016 0.02

Figure 3. Variation of relative absorbance as a function of To for different values of b. The

curves have been plotted for a taper ratio equal to 2.

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