Fiber ring laser based on SMF–TCF–SMF structure for strain and refractive index sensing

Abstract. An erbium-doped fiber ring laser with embedded Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) is constructed and experimentally demonstrated for strain and refractive index (RI) measurement. The MZI consists of a segment of thin-core fiber sandwiched between two single-mode fibers and acts as both the sensing component as well as a bandpass filter to select the lasing wavelength. The strain sensitivity of ∼-0.97  pm/μϵ and RI sensitivity of ∼44.88  nm/RIU are obtained in the range of 0 to 1750  μϵ and 1.3300 to 1.3537, respectively. The high-optical signal-to-noise ratio of >50  dB and narrow 3-dB bandwidth of <0.11  nm obtained indicate that the fiber ring laser sensor is promising for high-precision strain and RI measurement.

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