Analysis of white-light fiber Fabry-Perot interferometric sensors

Abstract

In the theoretical performance evaluation of fiber Fabry-Perot interferometric sensors, sensitivity, fringe contrast and dynamic range are the three most important parameters. This paper theoretically models the effect of the cavity length, the F-P finesse, the source bandwidth, the mirror misalignments and symmetry on the sensitivity, fringe contrast and dynamic range of a white-light fiber Fabry-Perot interferometer. The developed systematic analysis approach and the numerical analysis results on both guided and unguided fiber Fabry-Perot interferometric sensors may provide useful guidance for sensor design optimization.