All-optical demodulation fiber acoustic sensor with real-time controllable sensitivity based on optical vernier effect

In the fiber sensing research area, a pair of sharp contradictions is highlighted: high sensitivity and large dynamic range. In addition, the question of how to enable user-editable features for fiber optic sensors is gaining more and more attention. This letter presents a fiber acoustic sensor with real-time controllable sensitivity based on the optical vernier effect, which is possibly a solution to such a problem. The optical vernier structure with amplified and real-time tunable detection sensitivity is formed by cascading a Sagnac interferometer and a laboratory-made tunable Fabry–Perot interferometer (FPI). Sound pressure and frequency of the acoustic signal can be all-optically demodulated simultaneously by spectral reading and spectral scanning method, respectively. Experimental results show a real-time controllable acoustic sensitivity (1×, 5×, and 10× are demonstrated) and a maximum sensitivity is as high as 37.1 nm/Pa (10× of single FPI) within relatively large sound pressure range of 62.2–92.4 dB. By adjusting the FPI cavity length in real time, sensitivity can be controlled to meet the needs of different users or occasions. The proposed sensor has merits of controllable sensitivity in real time, high sensitivity, and large dynamic range, enabling the applications related but not limited to acoustic sensing.