Wavelength encoding sensors, such as fiber Bragg grating, have the advantage of strong antijamming ability. However,
the wavelength encoding signal is usually converted into electric intensity signal by demodulators in most
measurements. The intensity signal is easy to be disturbed by environmental factors, so the advantage of wavelength
encoding fails due to the instable intensity demodulation. In this paper, a novel wavelength demodulating method is
presented. This method demodulates the wavelength encoding signal directly by means of counting using a Sagnac
interferometer with birefringent fiber without the encoding conversion from wavelength to intensity. Through the
interferometer, the changed wavelength signal from sensor becomes the kind of output light, the intensity of which is
changed with wavelength periodically. The intensity can easy be disturbed, but its period is very stable. In other words,
the change of wavelength in one intensity period is stable. With this character, we count the number when the rising edge
and falling edge of intensity appear, and then calculate the accurate change of wavelength signal. In experiment, we get
the 0.01 nm wavelength resolution by use of a Sagnac interferometer with 200 meter birefringent fiber. It can be proved
that the intensity frequency (the reciprocal of intensity period) changed with wavelength is proportional to the length of
birefringent fiber. The length is fixed, the frequency is determined. For farther increasing the wavelength resolution, it is
only necessary to increase the length of birefringent fiber. The wavelength demodulator by counting method has high
stability and high precision.
It is well known that as a measurement device, Sagnac fiber interferometer has the advantages of high measuring
sensibility and strong antijamming ability. However, it is precisely because of the high sensibility, the measured change
range of sensed quantities is usually very small. And also because of the strong antijamming ability, the fiber of Sagnac
interferometer can not be used as a sensor. The reason is that the sensed signal well be eliminated by the signal
cancellation effect between the two directions in Sagnac interferometer like the disturbance signal. This paper presents a
novel Sagnac fiber sensor. It is added two devices into the common Sagnac fiber loop, one is the phase compression
device and another is the birefringent fiber sensor. The phase compression device consists of a time delay fiber and a
piezoelectic ceramic twisted around by Sagnac fiber. This device can realize the phase compression by which the
measured range of sensed quantities is widely extended. The birefringent fiber sensor consists of a short section of high
birefringent fiber. The method of adding the birefringent fiber sensor is selecting suitable position on Sagnac fiber loop
and breaking off the fiber, then melting and linking the two break surfaces with the short section of high birefringent
fiber. Not like the common fiber, there is not cancellation effect on the birefringent fiber. So the Sagnac interferometer
can become a sensor. This kind of Sagnac fiber sensor has the advantages of high measuring precision, wide measured
range, strong antijamming ability and simple structure.
Wavelength encoding sensors, such as fiber Bragg grating, have the advantage of strong antijamming ability. However,
the wavelength encoding signal is usually converted to electric intensity signal by demodulators in most measurements.
The intensity signal is easy to be disturbed by environmental factors, so the advantage of wavelength encoding fails due
to the instable intensity demodulation. In this paper, a novel wavelength demodulating method is presented. This method
demodulates wavelength encoding signal directly by means of counting using a Sagnac interferometer with birefringent
fiber without encoding conversion from wavelength to intensity. Through the interferometer, the changed wavelength
signal from sensor becomes the kind of output light, the intensity of which is changed with wavelength periodically. The
intensity can easy be disturbed, but its period is very stable. In other words, the change of wavelength in one intensity
period is stable. With this character, we count the number at the rising edge and falling edge of intensity appear, and then
calculate the accurate change of wavelength signal. From experiment, we get 0.067 nm wavelength resolution by use of a
Sagnac interferometer with 30 meter birefringent fiber. It is proved that the intensity frequency (the reciprocal of
intensity period) changed with wavelength is proportional to the length of birefringent fiber. If the length is fixed, the
frequency is determined. For farther increase of wavelength resolution, it is only necessary to increase the length of
birefringent fiber. The wavelength demodulator is characteristic of high stability and high precision.
The method to perform matrix/vector multiplication using the acousto-optic (AO) processor has been studded in some earlier publications. This processing architecture provides high speed and high accuracy calculation. However, in the system, two AO devices must be used. For this reason, the optical couple between the two devices has to be adjusted carefully. It will cause the inconvenience and unsteadiness. A novel two- dimensional multichannel acousto-optic device is presented in this paper. By use of this kind of device, the trouble which the earlier architecture suffered from is got rid of and the experiment system is simplified.
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