The main objective of the present work is to develop an optical fiber relative humidity (RH) sensor having a linear response throughout over the widest possible dynamic range. We report an optical fiber RH sensor based on the evanescent wave absorption spectroscopy that fulfills this objective. The fiber sensor employs a specific nanoparticle (zinc oxide) doped sol-gel nanostructured sensing film of optimum thickness, synthesized over a short length of a centrally decladded straight and uniform optical fiber. A detailed experimental investigation is carried out to analyze the sensor response/characteristics. Fiber sensor response is observed to be linear throughout the dynamic range as wide as 4% to 96% RH. The observed linear sensitivity for the fiber sensor is 0.0012 RH(-1). The average response time of the reported sensor is observed to be as short as 0.06 s during the humidification. In addition, the sensor exhibited a very good degree of reversibility and extremely high reliability as well as repeatability.

An optical fiber humidity sensor employing an in-house scaled TiO2-nanoparticle doped nanostructured thin film as the fiber sensing cladding and evanescent wave absorption is reported. The main objective of the present work is to achieve a throughout-linear sensor response with high sensitivity, possibly over a wide dynamic range using the simplest possible sensor geometry. In order to realize this, first, the nanostructured sensing film is synthesized over a short length of a centrally decladded straight and uniform optical fiber and then a comprehensive experimental investigation is carried out to optimize the design configuration/parameters of the nanostructured sensing film and to achieve the best possible sensor response. Much improved sensitivity of 27.1 mV/%RH is observed for the optimized sensor along with a throughout-linear sensor response over a dynamic range as wide as 24% to 95%RH with an average response time of 0.01 s for humidification and 0.06 s for desiccation. In addition, the sensor exhibits a very good degree of reversibility and repeatability.

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A design for an all-optical temperature insensitive fiber Bragg grating (FBG) based tilt sensor is reported. The sensor is capable of measuring the magnitude as well as the direction of inclination from the horizontal with a complete reversible response over the designed dynamic range of AE45°. The most important feature of the reported sensor is its inherent enhanced tuning capability for its sensitivity. An excellent sensitivity of the order of ∼0:0626 nm=°that can further be tuned is observed for the sensor. Experimental results show that a tilt angle resolution better than 0:008°with a tilt accuracy of ∼ AE 0:36°w as achieved.