Simulation of Mach-Zehnder interferometer plastic optical fibre for temperature and refractive index measurement

Abstract

This work presents simulation of light propagation inside tapered structure-plastic optical fibre (POF) subjected to various surrounding temperatures and refractive index (RI). The tapered structure served as Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) which split light into core modes and clad modes that recombined at the end of the taper. Simulation was done by using Beam Propagation Method (BPM) solved using Finite Difference Method (FDM). The light launched in to the MZI was varied from 611nm to 655nm. In order to give temperature effect, the temperature was varied from 30°C to 80°C with increment of 10°C. The results showed that the free spectral range (FSR) of the MZI are shifted as temperature increased. The sensitivity for the peak and dip of the FSR are -0.0158 nm/°C and -0.0153 nm/°C, respectively. For RI sensitivity investigation, the surrounding RI was varied from 1.333 to 1.349. The sensitivity of peak FSR and dip FSR to RI change are -98.638 nm/RIU and 105.4 nm/RIU. Therefore, the MZI can be used to measure RI and temperature simultaneously.