A novel fiber Bragg grating based palladium tube sensor was designed for hydrogen leakage detection in aerospace vehicles. The sensor fabrication method was developed and the sensor response was characterized in terms of total wavelength change, response time and degassing ability. Several factors that influence the sensor performance, including the tube thickness, purging temperature, purging gas, hydrogen concentration, and operation temperature, were studied. The sensor response was improved by reducing the thickness of the palladium tube to around 33 .tm, optimizing the operation temperature to 95°C, and thoroughly degassing the sensor in nitrogen at 95°C for 4 hours. At these conditions, the total wavelength change was about 0.6 nm, the response time (the time to reach a 0.05 nm wavelength change) was about 2 minutes for the four-hour 4% hydrogen tests.

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Development of practical, high-temperature optical claddings for improved waveguiding in sapphire fibers continued during the reporting period. A set of designed experiments using the Taguchi method was undertaken to efficiently determine the optimal set of processing variables to yield clad fibers with good optical and mechanical properties. Eighteen samples of sapphire fibers were prepared with spinel claddings, each with a unique set of variables. Statistical analyses of the results were then used to predict the set of factors that would result in a spinel cladding with the optimal geometrical, mechanical, and optical properties. To confirm the predictions of the Taguchi analysis, sapphire fibers were clad with the magnesium aluminate spinel coating using the predicted optimal set of factors. In general, the clad fibers demonstrated high quality, exceeding the best results obtained during the Phase I effort. Tests of the high-temperature stability of the clad fibers were also conducted. The results indicated that the clad fibers were stable at temperatures up to 1300°C for the duration of the three day test. At the higher temperatures, some changes in the geometry of the fibers were observed.The design, fabrication, and testing of a sapphire sensor for measurement of temperature was undertaken. The specific sensor configuration uses a polished sapphire wafer as the temperature-sensitive element. The wafer is attached to a sapphire fiber (clad or unclad), and interrogated as a Fabry-Perot sensor. Methods for assembling the sensor were investigated. A prototype sensor was fabricated and tested at room temperature and elevated temperatures. Results were difficult to interpret, due to the presence of modal noise which was found to result from the use of a spectrometer that was not designed for use with multimode fibers. A spectrometer optimized for use of multimode fiber has been obtained, and further evaluation of the sapphire temperature sensor is continuing.

Accomplishments during the first six months of a program to develop and demonstrate technology for the instrumentation of advanced powerplants are described. Engineers from Prime Research, LC and Babcock and Wilcox Research Center collaborated to generate a list of potential applications for robust photonic sensors in existing and future boiler plants. From that list, three applications were identified as primary candidates for initial development and demonstration of high-temperature sensors in an ultrasupercritical power plant. In addition, progress was made in the development of materials and methods to apply high-temperature optical claddings to sapphire fibers, in order to improve their optical waveguiding properties so that they can be used in the design and fabrication of high-temperature sensors. Through refinements in the processing steps, the quality of the interface between core and cladding of the fibers was improved, which is expected to reduce scattering and attenuation in the fibers.

Accomplishments of a program to develop and demonstrate photonic sensor technology for the instrumentation of advanced powerplants and solid oxide fuel cells are described. The goal of this project is the research and development of advanced, robust photonic sensors based on improved sapphire optical waveguides, and the identification and demonstration of applications of the new sensors in advanced fossil fuel power plants, where the new technology will contribute to improvements in process control and monitoring.