Vernier Effect Based Temperature Sensor Revealed Ultra-Sensitivity With High-Detection Resolution

Abstract

In this study, a Vernier effect based temperature sensor with ultra-sensitivity and highresolution detection is presented. The structure of the proposed temperature sensor is based on dual cascaded Fabry-Perot interferometers (FPIs), which consists of polymer and air cavity FPIs. The polymer cavity works as the sensing part, whereas the air cavity works as the reference part. The slight difference between the Free Spectral Range (FSR) of the sensing and the reference FPIs can establish the Vernier effect, which improves the sensitivity of the cascaded FPIs structure compared to the single FPI structure. The experimental results show that the proposed structure can provide the ultra-high temperature sensitivity of 67.69 nm/ • C that is 20 times higher than the single FPI, which is 3.36 nm/ • C in the testing range of 26 • C-28 • C. In addition, the structure is simple to fabricate, compact, inexpensive, along with ultra-sensitivity and high-resolution. Therefore, the proposed sensor is a suitable choice for the applications demanding high resolution temperature detection in different fields of engineering and science.