Fiber-optic gas pressure sensing with a laser-heated silicon-based Fabry-Perot interferometer

We report a novel fiber-optic sensor for measurement of static gas pressure based on the natural convection of a heated silicon pillar attached to a fiber tip functioning as a Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI). A visible laser beam is guided by the fiber to efficiently heat the silicon pillar, while an infrared whitelight source, also guided by the fiber, is used to measure the temperature of the FPI, which is influenced both by the laser power and the pressure through natural convection. We theoretically and experimentally show that, by monitoring the fringe shift caused by the laser heating, air pressure sensing with little temperature cross-sensitivity can be achieved. The pressure sensitivity can be easily tuned by adjusting the heating laser power. In our experiment, the sensor performance within the temperature range from 20°C to 50°C and the pressure range from 0 to 1400 psi has been characterized, showing an average sensitivity of -0.52 pm/psi. Compared to the passive version of the sensor, the pressure sensitivity was ∼15 times larger, and the temperature cross-sensitivity was ∼100 times smaller.