Machzehnder Interferometer and it’s Applications

Abstract

This paper describes the design of Mach Zehnder Interferometer and reviews its applications in emerging optical communication networks. Mach Zehnder Interferometer is basically used to measure relative phase shift between two collimated beams from a coherent light source. Using this basic principle a number of devices can be designed, few of these such as optical sensors, all-optical switches, optical add-drop multiplexer and modulator are discussed in this paper.

Refractive index sensor based on a solid-core photonic crystal fiber interferometer

“…During the splicing process and due to surface tension, the air-holes of the PCF collapse with in microscopic length was ~300µm, as shown in Fig.2. The fully collapsed air holes of the PCF at the first splicing point allow the coupling of PCF core and cladding modes propagate through same wave guided and then they are subsequently recombined by second splicing point that makes a Mach-Zehnder interferometer [8]. Fig.3 shows the setup of the refractive index sensor based on PCFI, laser source (1550 nm) is connected to PCFI, and light that transmitted through optical spectrum analyzer (OSA) was used as a recorder of the transmission spectra.…”

Characterization of transmission in a multiple core-offset Mach-Zehnder interferometer filter using single-mode fiber

“…Optical fiber sensors have a significant impact in multiple applications, due to control and monitoring different processes in the industry, at measure phase shifting, including curvature, temperature, torsion, intensity and refractive index 1 . The sensors 2,3 have characteristic advantages, such as high sensitivity, electromagnetic immunity, resistance to corrosion, remote sensing, and low cost, which also offers scalability and repeatability. The Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) is a device that utilizes light interference to detect changes in length path or refractive index.…”