Dual hollow core fiber-based Fabry-Perot interferometer for measuring the thermo-optic coefficients of liquids

A microcavity fiber Fabry-Perot interferometer (MFFPI) that is based on dual hollow core fibers (HCFs) is developed for measuring the thermo-optic coefficients (TOCs) of liquids. The proposed MFFPI was fabricated by fusion-splicing a tiny segment of the main-HCF with a diameter D of 30 mu m and another section of feeding-HCF with a diameter of 5 mu m. Then, the main-HCF was filled with liquid by capillary action through the feeding-HCF by immersing the MFFPI in the liquid. The TOCs of the Cargille liquid (n(D) = 1.3), deionized (DI) water, and ethanol were accurately determined from the shift of the interference wavelength, which was due to the temperature variation. Our experimental results were also compared with other published studies to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed sensing scheme. The major advantage is that the miniature MFFPI can achieve the measurement of the TOCs of the liquids with picoliter volume, and the measured liquids also can be sealed off and stored inside the HCF to prevent contamination. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America