Optical Fiber Humidity Sensor Based on Water Absorption Peak Near 2-μm Waveband

We demonstrate the absorption-based fiber humidity sensors working near 1950 nm wavelength which is a strong water absorption peak. No additional coating of humidity-sensitive material is needed for the proposed relative humidity (RH) fiber sensors. Two sensor structures including a taper fiber and a microfiber knot resonator are fabricated. For the taper fiber sensor, upto 0.18 mW/% RH sensitivity has been achieved via direct power measurement. For the fiber knot sensor, the RH variations induce both extinction ratio change and wavelength shift. The optical spectra of the fiber knot resonator under different RH are measured, and the extinction ratio and wavelength shift sensitivity are measured to be 0.034 dB/% RH and 10 pm/% RH, respectively. The response time for the tapered fiber is 1.13 s for RH increasing from 28.6% to 53.4% and 2.27 s for the reverse operation. The microfiber knot sensor can respond in 0.8 and 1.55 s accordingly. The sensor performance for the two structures is also investigated under different temperatures from 25 °C to 45 °C and the results indicate negligible impact from the temperature variations. We believe the simple fabrication and low cost of the sensor will make it potential and practical for the RH measurement.