Fiber-Optic Humidity Sensor Based on an Air-Gap Long Period Fiber Grating

In this paper, we propose a novel high-sensitivity fiber-optic humidity sensor based on a calcium chloride thin film to be coated on an air-gap long-period grating fabricated (AG-LPG) by combining the fiber side-polishing and fiber etching methods. When the surrounding refractive index of the air-gap long-period grating is changed by a change in humidity, the grating resonant wavelength is considered varied. Experimental results indicate that humidity can be detected by this sensing mechanism and has a high sensitivity of about 1.36 nm/1% RH. (C) 2011 The Japan Society of Applied Physics