Magnetic field sensing based on fiber loop ring-down spectroscopy and etched fiber interacting with magnetic fluid

Abstract A novel magnetic field sensing system based on fiber loop ring-down spectroscopy (FLRDS) and etched fiber interacting with magnetic fluid (MF) is proposed and demonstrated for the first time. The enhanced evanescent field effect in the sensing part was achieved by etching the fiber with hydrofluoric acid. The influence of diameters of etched fiber to the performance of the sensor was investigated and discussed. In the sensing system, the etched fiber surrounded by MF was used as the sensing head and on account of the tunable refractive index and absorption coefficient of MF, the transmission spectrum would change with the magnetic field strength. In this letter, the FLRDS sensing system was theoretically modeled and FLRDS technique was utilized to modulate the transmission spectrum. The sensitivity of magnetic field sensing was enhanced significantly. In the experiment, performances of the magnetic field sensing system were tested by applying different measured magnetic field. The final results indicated that a sensitivity of 12.56 G/μs was achieved.