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Hollow square core fiber sensor for physical parameters measurement
The measurement of physical parameters is important in many current applications, since they often rely on these measurands to operate with the due quality and the necessary safety. In this work, a simple and robust optical fiber sensor based on an antiresonant hollow square core fiber (HSCF) is proposed to measure simultaneously temperature, strain, and curvature. The proposed sensor was designed in a transmission configuration where a segment of HSCF, with a 10 mm length, was spliced between two single mode fibers. In this sensor, a cladding modal interference (CMI) and a Mach-Zehnder interference (MZI) are enhanced along with the antiresonance (AR) guidance. All the present mechanisms exhibit different responses towards the physical parameters. For the temperature, sensitivities of 32.8 pm/°C, 18.9 pm/°C, and 15.7 pm/°C were respectively attained for the MZI, AR, and CMI. As for the strain, sensitivities of 0.45 pm/μϵ, -0.93 pm/μϵ, and -2.72 pm/μϵ were acquired for the MZI, AR and CMI respectively. Meanwhile, for the curvature measurements, two regions of analysis were considered. In the first region (0 m-1 - 0.7 m-1) sensitivities of 0.033 nm/m-1, -0.27 nm/m-1, and -2.21 nm/m-1 were achieved, whilst for the second region (0.7 m-1 - 1.5 m-1) sensitivities of 0.067 nm/m-1, -0.63 nm/m-1, and -0.49 nm/m-1 were acquired for the MZI, AR and CMI, respectively.
Pinning and trapped field in MgB2- and MT-YBaCuO bulk superconductors manufactured under pressure
The relevant pinning centers of Abrikosov vortices in MgB2-based materials are oxygen-enriched Mg-B-O inclusions or nanolayers and inclusions of MgBx (x>4) phases. The high critical current densities, jc, of 106 and 103A/cm2 at 1 and 8.5 T, respectively, at 20 K can be achieved in polycrystalline materials (prepared at 2 GPa) containing a large amount of admixed oxygen. Besides, oxygen can be incorporated into the MgB2 structure in small amounts (MgB1.5O0.5), which is supported by Auger studies and calculations of the DOS and the binding energy. The jc of melt textured YBa2Cu3O7-δ (or Y123)-based superconductors (MT-YBaCuO) depends not only on the perfectness of texture and the amount of oxygen in the Y123 structure, but also on the density of twins and micro-cracks formed during the oxygenation (due to shrinking of the c-lattice parameter). The density of twins and microcracks increases with the reduction of the distance between Y2BaCuO5 (Y211) inclusions in Y123. At 77 K jc=8·104 A/cm2 in self-field and jc=103 A/cm2 at 10 T were found in materials oxygenated at 16 MPa for 3 days with a density of twins of 22–35 per µm (thickness of the lamellae: 45-30 nm) and a density of micro-cracks of 200–280 per mm. Pinning can occur at the points of intersection between the Y123 twin planes and the Y211 inclusions. MTYBaCuO at 77 K can trap 1.4 T (38×38×17 mm, oxygenated at 0.1 MPa for 20 days) and 0.8 T (16 mm in diameter and 10 mm thick with 0.45 mm holes oxygenated at 10 MPa for 53 h). The sensitivity of MgB2 to magnetic field variations (flux jumps) complicates estimates of the trapped field. At 20 K 1.8 T was found for a block of 30 mm in diameter and a thickness of 7.5 mm and 1.5 T (if the magnetic field was increased at a rate of 0.1 T) for a ring with dimensions 24×18 mm and a thickness of 8 mm.
Process flow to integrate nanostructures on silicon grass in surface micromachined systems
The process flow to integrate metallic nanostructures in surface micromachining processes is presented. The nanostructures are generated by evaporation of microstructured silicon grass with metal. The process flow is based on the lift-off of a thin amorphous silicon layer deposited using a CVD process. All steps feature a low temperature load beneath 120 °C and high compatibility with many materials as only well-established chemicals are used. As a result metallic nanostructures usable for optical applications can be generated as part of multilayered microsystems fabricated in surface micromachining.
Capillary based hybrid fiber sensor in a balloon-like shape for simultaneous measurement of displacement and temperature
In this work, a hybrid sensor based on a silica capillary in a balloon-like shape for simultaneous measurement of displacement and temperature is proposed for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. The sensor is fabricated by splicing a segment of a hollow core fiber between two single mode fibers (SMF) and by bending the fiber in a balloon shape with the capillary at the top-center position. In a transmission scheme, the SMF-capillary-SMF configuration excites an antiresonant (AR) guidance and the balloon shape enhances a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI). The different responses of the interferometers to external displacement and temperature variations are conducive to a hybrid application of the sensor for simultaneous measurement of these parameters. Experimental results show that, for a capillary length of 1.2 cm and a balloon length of 4 cm, AR is insensitive to displacement and its sensitivity to temperature is 14.3 pm/°C, while the MZI has a sensitivity to displacement of 1.68 nm/mm and twice the sensitivity of AR to temperature, of 28.6 pm/°C. The proposed fiber sensor consists of only one sensing element in one configuration exciting two interferometers at the same time, which makes it of simple fabrication as well as low cost.