Measurement of Gamma-Rays Induced Luminescence Generated in a Sapphire Based Fiber-Optic Radiation Sensor

In this study, we fabricated a sapphire based fiber-optic radiation sensor. To evaluate the fiber- optic radiation sensor, we measured the spectrum and intensity of the luminescence generated from the fiber-optic radiation sensor according to the thickness of the PMMA block by irradiation of gamma rays emitted from a Co-60 source. And the result was compared with the value calculated from the formula of Lambert-Beer.

Isomeric fluorescence sensors for wide range detection of ionizing radiations

In order to achieve a wider range of ionizing radiations detection,novel fluorescence sensing materials have been developed that utilize the fluorescence enhancement phenomenon caused by the intramolecular photoinduced electron transfer(PET)effect.Two perylene diimide isomers PDI-P and PDI-B were designed and synthesized,and their molecular structures were characterized by high-resolution Fourier transform mass spectrometry(HRMS),nuclear magnetic resonance hydrogen and carbon spectroscopy(~1H and~(13)C NMR).The interaction between ionizing radiation and fluorescent molecules was simulated by HCl titration.The results show that combining PDIs and HCl can improve fluorescence through the retro-PET process.Despite the similarities in chemical structures,the fluorescent enhancement multiple of PDI-B with aromatic amine as electron donor is much higher than that of PDI-P with alkyl amine.In the direct irradiation experiments of ionizing radiation,the emission enhancement multiples of PDI-P and PDI-B are 2.01 and 45.4,respectively.Furthermore,density functional theory(DFT)and time-dependent density functional theory(TDDFT)calculations indicate that the HOMO and HOMO-1 energy ranges of PDI-P and PDI-B are 0.54 e V and 1.13 e V,respectively.A wider energy range has a stronger driving force on electrons,which is conducive to fluorescence quenching.Both femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy(fs-TAS)and transient fluorescence spectroscopy(TFS)tests show that PDI-B has shorter charge separation lifetime and higher electron transfer rate constant.Although both isomers can significantly reduce LOD during PET process,PDI-B with aromatic amine has a wider detection range of 0.118—240 Gy due to its larger emission enhancement,which is a leap of three orders of magnitude.It breaks through the detection range of gamma radiation reported in existing studies,and provides theoretical support for the further study of sensitive and effective new materials for ionizing radiation detection.

Dual-channel fiber-optic surface plasmon resonance sensor with cascaded coaxial dual-waveguide D-type structure and microsphere structure

To address the restriction of fiber-optic surface plasmon resonance(SPR) sensors in the field of multi-sample detection, a novel dual-channel fiber-optic SPR sensor based on the cascade of coaxial dual-waveguide D-type structure and microsphere structure is proposed in this paper. The fiber sidepolishing technique converts the coaxial dual-waveguide fiber into a D-type one, and the evanescent wave in the ring core leaks, generating a D-type sensing region;the fiber optic fused ball push technology converts the coaxial dual waveguides into microspheres, and the stimulated cladding mode evanescent wave leaks, producing the microsphere sensing region. By injecting light into the coaxial dual-waveguide middle core alone, the sensor can realize single-stage sensing in the microsphere sensing area;it can also realize dual-channel sensing in the D-type sensing area and microsphere sensing area by injecting light into the ring core. The refractive index measurement ranges for the two channels are 1.333–1.365 and 1.375–1.405, respectively, with detection sensitivities of 981.56 nm/RIU and 4138 nm/RIU. The sensor combines wavelength division multiplexing and space division multiplexing technologies, presenting a novel research concept for multi-channel fiber SPR sensors.

Conducting Rubber Force Sensor: Transient Characteristics and Radiation Heating Effect

Compression force sensors are indispensable to tactile sensors in humanoid robots. We are investigating the application of low-cost electrically conducting rubber sheets to force sensors, of which the biggest problem is its poor reproducibility. We have found that the deposition of aluminum by a vacuum evaporation method shows such an excellent characteristic that the sensor can be used in a wide range under 10.33 N/cm2. In this article, we investigated time response of the sensors and also studied how the radiation heating during the vacuum evaporation process for Al deposition affected their sensing property. We found that the radiation heating induces deterioration from the point of view of standard deviation of the output voltage of the sensors at a transient region. We convince that a low-temperature Al deposition method should be developed to form electrodes on the electrical conducting rubber sensors.

Experimental Measurements of the Sensitivity of Fiber-optic Bragg Grating Sensors with a Soft Polymeric Coating under Mechanical Loading,Thermal and Magnetic under Cryogenic Conditions

The strain and temperature sensing performance of fiber-optic Bragg gratings （FBGs） with soft polymeric coating, which can be used to sense internal strain in superconducting coils, are evaluated under variable cryogenic field and magnetic field. The response to a temperature and strain change of coated-soft polymeric FBGs is tested by comparing with those of coated-metal FBGs. The results indicate that the coated-soft polymeric FBGs can freely detect temperature and thermal strain, their At variable magnetic field, the tested results indicate accuracy and repeatability are also discussed in detail. that the cross-coupling effects of FBGs with different matrixes are not negligible to measure electromagnetic strain during fast excitation. The present results are expected to be able to provide basis measurements on the strain of pulsed superconducting magnet/cable （cable- around-conduit conductors, cable-in-conduit conductors）, independently or utilized together with other strain measurement methods.

Inspection of Complex Internal Surface Shape with Fiber-optic Sensor II: for Specular Tilted Surface Measurement

Complex surface shape measurement has been a focus topic in the CAD/CAM field. A popular method for measuring dimensional information is using a 3D coordinate measuring machine (CMM)with a touch trigger probe. The measurement set up with CMM, however, is a time consuming task and the accuracy of the measurement deteriorates as the speed of measurement increase. Non-contact measurement is favored since high speed measurement can be achieved and problems with vibration and friction can be eliminated. Although much research has been conducted in non-contact measurement using image capturing and processing schemes, accuracy is poor and measurement is limited. Some optical technologies developed provide a good accuracy but the dynamic range and versatility is very limited. A novel fiber-optic sensor used for the inspection of complex internal contours is presented in this paper, which is able to measure a surface shape in a non-contact manner with high accuracy and high speed, and is compact and flexible to be incorporated into a CMM. Modulation functions for tilted surface shape measurement, based on the Gaussian distribution of the emitting beam from single-mode fiber (SMF), were derived for specular reflection. The feasibility of the proposed measurement principle was verified by simulations.

Effect of irradiation on temperature performance of dispersioncompensation no-core cascade optical-fiber sensor coated with polydimethylsiloxane film

A temperature measurement device can produce data deviations and can even be damaged in a high-dose radiation environment.To reduce the radiation damage to such a device and improve the temperature measurement accuracy in a radiation environment,a temperature sensor based on optical-fiber sensing technology is proposed.This sensor has a cascade structure composed of a single-mode fiber(SMF),a dispersion-compensation fiber(DCF),a nocore fiber(NCF),and another SMF(SDNS).The DCF and NCF are coated with a polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS)film,which is a heat-sensitive material with high thermal optical and thermal expansion coefficients.In experiments,PDMS was found to produce an irradiation crosslinking effect after irradiation,which improved the temperature sensitivity of the SDNS sensor.The experimental results showed that within a range of 30–100℃,the maximum temperature sensitivity after irradiation was 62.86 pm/℃,and the maximum transmission sensitivity after irradiation was 3.353×10^(-2)dB/℃,which were 1.22 times and 2.267 times the values before irradiation,respectively.In addition,repeated temperature experiments verified that the SDNS sensor coated with the PDMS film had excellent temperature repeatability.Furthermore,it was found that with an increase in the irradiation intensity,the irradiation crosslinking degree of PDMS increased,and the temperature sensitivity of the sensor was improved.The proposed sensor could potentially be applied to temperature measurement in a nuclear-radiation environment.

Highly Sensitive Fiber-Optic Faraday-Effect Magnetic Field Sensor Based on Yttrium Iron Garnet

The principle and performance of a fiber-optic Faraday-effect magnetic-field sensor based on an yttrium iron garnet (YIG) and two flux concentrations are described. A single polarization-maintaining optical fiber links the sensor head to the source and detection system, in which the technique of phase shift cancellation is used to cancel the phase shift that accumulatein the optical fiber. Flux concentrators were exploited to enhance the YIG crystal magneto-optic sensitivity .The sensor system exhibited a noise-equivalent field of 8 pT/√Hz and a 3 dB bandwidth of ～10 MHz.

Research of Water Response under the Action of the Infrared Human Body Radiation by Water Conductometric Sensors

Non-equilibrium thermal and biothermal radiation generated by heated solid materials and hematothermal living organisms are studied by water conductometric sensors. Engineering aspects and physical features of developed water conductometric sensors are given. Procedure and measuring technique are described. Our experiments show the anomalous behavior of water conductivity and associated differential parameters under water heating by biological objects compared with traditional heating sources. Water response to human action strongly depends on psychophysiological and psychoemotional state of the person. Moreover the responses to the action by left and right human hands are substantially different and as a rule are specific to the gender. The possible physicochemical mechanisms of such anomalous water behavior are studied. It is suggested that the observed effects are associated with resonant excitation of vibration-rotation energy levels of water under the influence of bioradiation generated by human organism consisting of approximately 70% water. The results obtained have good perspectives for future applications in different fields of human activity.

Total dose radiation effects of pressure sensors fabricated on Unibond-SOI materials

Piezoresistive pressure sensors with a twin-island structure were suc- cessfully fabricated using high quality Unibond-SOI (On Insulator) materials. Since the piezoresistors were structured by the single crystalline silicon overlayer of the SOI wafer and were totally isolated by the buried SiO2. the sensors are radiation-hard. The sensitivity and the linearity of the pressure sensors keep their original values after being irradiated by 60Co γ-rays up to 2.3×104Gy (H2O). However, the offset voltage of the sensor has a slight drift, increasing with the radiation dose. The absolute value of the offset voltage deviation depends on the pressure sensor itself. For comparison, corresponding polysilicon pressure sensors were fabricated using the similar process and irradiated at the same condition.

Dark output characteristic of γ-ray irradiated CMOS digital image sensors

The quality of dark output images from the CMOS (complementarymetal oxide semiconductor) black and white (B & W) digital imagesensors captured before and after γ-ray irradiation was studied. Thecharacteristic parameters of the dark output images captured atdifferent radiation dose, e.g. average brightness and itsnon-uniformity of dark out- put images, were analyzed by our testsoftware. The primary explanation for the change of the parameterswith the radi- ation dose was given.

Surveying ionizing radiations in real time using a smartphone

Surveying ionizing radiations of the surrounding with a smartphone provides a low-cost and convenient utility for the general public. We developed a smartphone application(App) that uses the built-in camera with a CMOS sensor and a radiation signal extraction algorithm.After a calibration through a series of radiation exposures,the App could display radiation dose rate and cumulative dose in real time without requiring covering the camera lens. A smartphone with this App can be used as a fast survey tool for ionizing radiations.

Ultrasonic sensitivity-improved fiber-optic Fabry-Perot interferometer using a beam collimator and its application for ultrasonic imaging of seismic physical models

An ultrasonic sensitivity-improved fiber-optic Fabry-Perot interferometer （FPI） is proposed and employed for ultra- sonic imaging of seismic physical models （SPMs）. The FPI comprises a flexible ultra-thin gold film and the end face of a graded-index multimode fiber （MMF）, both of which are enclosed in a ceramic tube. The MMF in a specified length can collimate the diverged light beam and compensate for the light loss inside the air cavity, leading to an increased spectral fringe visibility and thus a steeper spectral slope. By using the spectral sideband filtering technique, the collimated FP1 shows an improved ultrasonic response. Moreover, two-dimensional images of two SPMs are achieved in air by recon- structing the pulse-echo signals through using the time-of-flight approach. The proposed sensor with easy fabrication and compact size can be a good candidate for high-sensitivity and high-precision nondestructive testing of SPMs.

Design of fiber-optic collector for spectrometer based on curved mirror

To enlarge the detection range of traditional fiber-optic spectrometer,two rotating parabolic mirrors were first used in the design of fiber-optic collector for spectrometer,which can extend the detection range of spectrometer from centimeter-scale to50m,as a super-low altitude remote sensing detector under passive lighting conditions.According to the performance requirements of fiber-spectrometer for optical collector,this study deduced the calculation formulae of design size of parabolic optical collector applied to different sensitivity spectrometers,different detection targets,different detection ranges and different weathers.Based on the calculation results,the model of fiber-optic collector with a diameter of16mm and a height of7.8mm was designed by ZEMAX.And then,TracePro,a light simulation software,was applied to ray tracing.The simulation results of optical radiation magnification agrees well with theoretical value,and the relative error is less than0.78%.This optical collector can effectively extend the detection range of spectrometer and expand its application fields and scopes.Compared with traditional refractive optical collector,it has several advantages of compact structure,low weight and low cost.

Review of Fiber-optic Distributed Acoustic Sensing Technology

A distributed optical-fiber acoustic sensor is an acoustic sensor that uses the optical fiber itself as a photosensitive medium,and is based on Rayleigh backscattering in an optical fiber.The sensor is widely used in the safety monitoring of oil and gas pipelines,the classification of weak acoustic signals,defense,seismic prospecting,and other fields.In the field of seismic prospecting,distributed optical-fiber acoustic sensing(DAS)will gradually replace the use of the traditional geophone.The present paper mainly expounds the recent application of DAS,and summarizes recent research achievements of DAS in resource exploration,intrusion monitoring,pattern recognition,and other fields and various DAS system structures.It is found that the high-sensitivity and long-distance sensing capabilities of DAS play a role in the extensive monitoring applications of DAS in engineering.The future application and development of DAS technology are examined,with the hope of promoting the wider application of the DAS technology,which benefits engineering and society.

Application of recording films of solar radiation for environmental and ecological research

Global solar radiation is recorded by fading of the colored film into which azo-dye is impregnated with use of organic solvent. Oil Red O, Sudan I, Sudan IV and Pyridylazonaphthol are used as the azo dye. These films can be applied to measure the solar radiation in many kinds of environmental or ecological conditions. The merits of the film compared with usual measurements are to be: unnecessary of any electric sources; cheap and mass-productive easily; suitable to integrate solar radiation for long time; easy dealing in out-door or underwater conditions; possible to use on leaves of any plants because of light weight; possible to use in a lot of points at the same time.

Laboratory investigations of the thermal strain of frozen soils,using fiber-optic strain gauges based on Bragg gratings

Measurements of the thermal deformations of frozen soil samples were performed in the cold laboratory in temperature range from 0°C to-12°C.Fiber Bragg Gratings strain and temperature sensors were used to measure the deformation and temperature inside the samples.A number of tests with the samples prepared from Kaolin and Cambrian clay saturated with fresh water,and prepared from fine and silt sand saturated with fresh or saline water,are performed.Thermal deformations of the samples are analyzed depending on the cyclic changes of their temperature.

Reflective Ladder Topology Network Based on White Light Fiber-Optic Mach-Zehnder Interferometer

In order to improve the multiplexing capability of the optical sensors based on the lower interferential optic fiber sensing technology and the white light fiber-optic Mach-Zehnder interferometer,reflective ladder topology network ( RLT) with tailored formula was proposed. The topology network consists of 6 rungs sensing elements linked by 5 couplers. Two cases with different choices of couplers were contrasted: one is equal coupling ratio,and the other is tailored coupling ratio. Through the simulation of these two cases,the detailed multiplexing capability was analyzed,and accordingly the experiments were also carried out. The simulation results showed that,the tailored formula enhances the multiplexing capability of the structure. In the first case, the maximum number of sensors which can be multiplexed is 8,and in the other case is 12 fiber optic sensors. The experimental results have a good agreement with numerical simulation results. Thus,it is considered expedient to incorporate RLT into large-scale building,grounds,bridges,dams,tunnels,highways and perimeter security.

The Influences of Inorganic Scintillator Optical Fiber Radiation Dosimeter in Some Conditions

In order to meet the increasing demands of modern radiotherapy, real time in-vivo dose measurement has recently attracted significant attention. A small, flexible optical fiber radiation dosimeter, with high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) that employs inorganic scintillator materials is presented. In this paper, some properties are investigated under special conditions, such as saturation properties when the intensity of the X-Ray is increased and the influence of the temperature of the environment. These properties are important to practical considerations if the sensor is to be successfully deployed in-vivo.

Gamma-radiation effects in pure-silica-core photonic crystal fiber

We investigated the steady state gamma-ray radiation response of pure-silica-core photonic crystal fibers（PSC-PCFs）under an accumulated dose of 500 Gy and a dose rate of 2.38 Gy/min. The radiation-induced attenuation（RIA） spectra in the near-infrared region from 800 nm to 1700 nm were obtained. We find that the RIA at 1550 nm is related with hydroxyl（OH^-） absorption defects in addition to the identified self-trapped hole（STH） defects. Moreover, it is proposed and demonstrated that reduced OH^-absorption defects can decrease the RIA at 1550 nm. The RIA at 1550 nm has effectively declined from 27.7 d B/km to 3.0 dB/km through fabrication improvement. Preliminary explanations based on the unique fabrication processes were given to interpret the RIA characteristics of PSC-PCFs. The results show that the PSC-PCFs,which offer great advantages over conventional fibers, are promising and applicable to fiber sensors in harsh environments.