Infrasound detection is important in natural disasters monitoring, military defense, underwater acoustic detection, and other domains. Fiber-optic Fabry–Perot (FP) acoustic sensors have the advantages of small structure size, long-distance detection, immunity to electromagnetic interference, and so on. The size of an FP sensor depends on the transducer diaphragm size and the back cavity volume. However, a small transducer diaphragm size means a low sensitivity. Moreover, a small back cavity volume will increase the low cut-off frequency of the sensor. Hence, it is difficult for fiber-optic FP infrasound sensors to simultaneously achieve miniaturization, high sensitivity, and extremely low detectable frequency. In this work, we proposed and demonstrated a miniaturized and highly sensitive fiber-optic FP sensor for mHz infrasound detection by exploiting a Cr-Ag-Au composite acoustic-optic transducer diaphragm and a MEMS technique-based spiral micro-flow hole. The use of the spiral micro-flow hole as the connecting hole greatly reduced the volume of the sensor and decreased the low-frequency limit, while the back cavity volume was not increased. Combined with the Cr-Ag-Au composite diaphragm, a detection sensitivity of -123.19dBre1rad/μPa at 5 Hz and a minimum detectable pressure (MDP) of 1.2mPa/Hz1/2 at 5 Hz were achieved. The low detectable frequency can reach 0.01 Hz and the flat response range was 0.01–2500 Hz with a sensitivity fluctuation of ±1.5dB. Moreover, the size of the designed sensor was only 12mm×Φ12.7mm. These excellent characteristics make the sensor have great practical application prospects.

In this Letter, a low-frequency acoustic sensor based on an extrinsic Fabry–Pérot (FP) interferometer with a silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) membrane is demonstrated. Using micromachining techniques, the 800 nm thick Si₃N₄ membrane is deposited on an 8 mm × 8 mm × 400 μm silicon (Si) substrate. All the assembly procedures of the sensor are focused on the substrate to avoid any damage to the membrane itself, compared to general membrane transfer methods. The frequency response of the proposed sensor is discussed theoretically and experimentally demonstrated. The sensor exhibits an excellent flat response to the tested acoustic frequency range of 1 Hz to 250 Hz. The phase sensitivity is around ?152 dB re 1 rad/μPa with sensitivity fluctuation less than 0.8 dB. The frequency response characteristic shows a promising potential of the sensor in low-frequency acoustic signal sensing applications.

This Letter shows the Vernier effect based on two segments of PANDA polarization maintaining fiber (PMF), whose lengths are 28 and 23 cm, respectively. The two PMFs are spliced together, and the angle between the fast axes is set to 45°. This cascaded PMF is inserted in a Sagnac loop to form an interferometer that can generate the Vernier effect. The spectrum consists of finesse fringe and envelope and realizes simultaneous measurement of strain and temperature. The envelope can provide strain and temperature sensitivities of 58.0 pm/με and 1.05 nm/°C. The finesse fringe provides sensitivities of 5.9 pm/με and 1.36 nm/°C.

In this Letter, an alternative solution is proposed and demonstrated for simultaneous measurement of axial strain and temperature. This sensor consists of two twisted points on a commercial single mode fiber introduced by flame-heated and rotation treatment. The fabrication process modifies the geometrical configuration and refractive index of the fiber. Different cladding modes are excited at the first twisted point, and part of them are coupled back to the fiber core at the second twisted point. Experimental results show distinct sensitivities of 34.9 pm/με with 49.23 pm/°C and 36.19 pm/με with 62.99 pm/°C for the two selected destructive interference wavelengths.