The invention provides an
optical fiber sensor design based on an
optical fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI), and particularly relates to an in-
fiber ladder-shaped special structure, which is particularly suitable for online monitoring of a reaction process in a microfluidic
system and can measure refractive indexes of three points in the reaction process at the same time. The
optical fiber sensor is formed by
welding a common single-mode optical
fiber, a coreless optical
fiber and a stepped single-mode optical fiber. The
broadband light source emits an optical
signal through the single-mode optical fiber, a high-order mode excited in the coreless optical fiber enters a cladding of the single-mode optical fiber to be transmitted, due to the effect of an evanescent field and the influence of the environment
refractive index and the temperature, the
signal excites
multiple modes in the optical fiber through the cascaded coreless optical fiber, and the high-order mode is transmitted in the cladding of the single-mode optical fiber. And an
optical path difference is introduced through a step structure positioned between the two coreless optical fibers. When a solution to be detected is immersed into the stepped groove, the structure can generate
refractive index change, and the propagation path of light can be adjusted by finely adjusting different sizes of the stepped groove to generate different phase differences, so that the light is coupled back into a fiber core of the single-mode fiber at the other end in the coreless fiber cascaded at the other end; and due to the special step-shaped structure, the
refractive index values at three positions of the central step can be measured at the same time. According to the design, the structure of a traditional Mach-Zehnder interferometer is optimized, the number of elements is reduced, the stability and reliability of the
system are improved, and the Mach-Zehnder interferometer is suitable for the fields of precision measurement, environment sensing, optical fiber communication and the like.