A Possible Use of Fiber-Optic Ring Resonator as a Nano-Scale Optical Sensor for Detection of Physical Quantities

This paper presents a proposed fiber-optic ring resonator with a resonance loop made of a conventional single-mode optical fiber as a nano-scale sensor for measurement of physical quantities, such as pressure and temperature. The operational theory of the resonator as an optical sensor is presented, where the effects of characteristic parameters of the resonator on the sensor response is investigated. It is shown that the behavior of sensor response with respect to some particular physical quantities is linear and is capable of detecting measurand variations of the order of 100 nanometers. The proposed sensor is suitable for design of hydrophones used in submarine communications.