Ultrasensitive Optical Sensing Instrument Has Broad Medical Uses

Dr. Lingze Duan, left, and Dr. Nabil Md Rakinul Hoque in Dr. Duan’s laboratory. (Credit: University of Alabama – Huntsville)

Researchers have developed a new kind of ultrasensitive optical sensing instrument. It combines the advantages of the two types of interferometers that are currently available, making it both compact and highly sensitive.

Called a Mach Zehnder-Fabry Perot (MZ-FP) hybrid fiber interferometer, it lays out a feasible path toward reaching unprecedented levels of strain resolutions for passive fiber sensors. The UAH-developed interferometer achieves one femto-strain of resolution, meaning it can detect the change of one billionth of a micrometer (10-6 m) out of one meter.

The interferometer embeds optical resonator-based interferometers into a double-path interferometer. The new hybrid interferometer is able to achieve far better signal resolutions than the regular MZIs. This allows our interferometer to possess the advantages of both types of interferometers.

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