Relative humidity sensor based on SMS fiber structure with polyvinyl alcohol coating

Abstract A novel relative humidity (RH) sensor based on single-mode–multimode–single-mode (SMS) fiber structure is presented. The sensors are created through coating a thin layer of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) on the multimode fiber deleted the cladding trough HF solution cauterization as the sensitive cladding film, whose refractive index varies as a function of humidity level. Due to the SMS fiber structure's sensitivity to ambient refractive index, the transmission spectra of SMS fiber structure coated PVA film are modified under exposure to different ambient humidity levels ranging from 30% to 80% RH. The related numerical simulations of transmission spectra of SMS fiber structure with different surrounding refractive index are also proposed. The sensitive of the RH measurement of 0.09 nm/% RH in the range from 30% to 80% RH is experimentally achieved. Meanwhile the intensity of wavelength at 1543 nm is decreasing as the humidity increasing. The experimental results obtained are consistent with the conclusion obtained by numerical simulating.