SST/Collaborative Research: Development of In-fiber Whitelight Interferometric Sensor for Absolute Distance Measurement and Characterization of Micro/Nano Scale Structures

摘要：黄海英普渡大学光纤传感器由于其体积小、重量轻、可远程操作和抗电磁干扰等优点，已被用于位移测量、温度传感、医疗诊断和共焦显微镜。基于长周期光纤光栅模式耦合效应的光纤内白光干涉式距离传感器是本项目的主要研究方向。提出了一种有效的条纹匹配算法，用于从白光条纹光谱中提取绝对距离。所提出的距离传感器的优点包括绝对距离测量，大动态范围，同时距离和温度测量，和自校准的高速数据询问。该距离传感器可应用于纳米结构的近场表面轮廓测量和MEMS薄膜材料的力学测试。这种传感器的成功开发将对多个学科产生深远的影响，包括纳米技术，微机电系统（MEMS），制造过程监控，材料研究和生命科学。本科生和研究生将参与发展工作，获得多个学科的技能，并将为少数民族外联方案提供暑期项目和示范。这是一个由传感器倡议NSF 05-526支持的项目。

ABSTRACT0528681PI: Haiying HuangPurdue UniversityOptical fiber sensors have been exploited for displacement measurement, temperature sensing, medical diagnosis, and confocal microscopy, due to their compact size, light weight, remote operation, and immunity to electro-magnetic interference. Development of an in-fiber whitelight interferometric distance sensor based on the mode coupling effect of a long period fiber grating is the major research thrust of this project. An efficient fringe-matching algorithm will be developed to extract the absolute distance from the whitelight fringe spectrum. The advantages of the proposed distance sensor include absolute distance measurement, large dynamic range, simultaneous distance and temperature measurement, and self-calibrated high-speed data interrogation. The proposed distance sensor will be applied to the near-field surface profiling of nanoscale structures and mechanical testing of MEMS thin film materials. Successful development of this sensor will have a profound impact on multiple disciplines including nanotechnology, Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS), manufacturing process monitoring, materials research, and life science. Undergraduate students and graduate students will participate in the development effort, acquiring skills in multiple disciplines and summer projects and demonstrations will be offered for the minority outreach programs. This is a project supported under the Sensor Initiative NSF 05-526.