Magnetic Fluid-Filled Optical Fiber Fabry-Perot Sensor for Magnetic Field Measurement

Magnetic fluid is a new type of optical functional material, which has interesting optical characteristics under an external magnetic field. In this letter, the magneto-optical characteristic of the magnetic fluid was adopted to form a novel fiber-optic magnetic field sensor. The sensor probe was composed of an extrinsic fiber Fabry-Perot interferometer and magnetic fluid. The refractive index of the magnetic fluid would be changed with the increase of magnetic field. Preliminary experiment was carried out to verify the feasibility of the sensor. The magnetic field measurement sensitivity was 0.0431 nm/Gs in the experiment. The measurement resolution was better than 0.5 Gs at the measurement range from 0 to 400 Gs. The sensor has the advantages of simple structure, compact size, and easy fabrication.