High temperature sensing with single material silica optical fibers

Abstract

We present recent developments in high temperature sensing using single material silica optical fibers. By using a single material fiber, in this case a suspended-core fiber, we avoid effects due to dopant diffusion at high temperature. This allows the measurement of temperatures up to the dilatometric softening temperature at approximately 1300°C. We demonstrate and compare high temperature sensing in two configurations. The first exploits a small section of single material fiber spliced onto a length of conventional single mode fiber, which operates through multimode interference. The second utilizes a type 11 fiber Bragg grating written via femtosecond laser ablation.