A sensing structure consisting of an abrupt taper spliced uniformly in to a fiber Bragg grating （FBG） is proposed and experimentally demonstrates refractive index （RI） and temperature measurements. Cladding modes are generated in the fiber through the abrupt taper containing the FBG. Most modes are reflected by the FBG at shorter wavelengths and reenter the launch fiber after passing through the abrupt taper. Spectral integrals are used to measure the power generated by the cladding and core modes. A sensitivity of-83.97 nW/RIU for ambient RI and a temperature sensitivity of 10 pm/℃ are obtained. No cross- sensitivity problems exist between ambient RI and temperature measurement.
An evanescent field optical fiber sensor based on a short section of polarization maintaining fiber spliced with a tapered single mode fiber is proposed and experimentally investigated. We mainly focus on the refractive index （RI） and temperature sensing characteristics of this compact device. The transmission spectrum of the resonance wavelength, induced by the interference between the excited low order cladding modes and core modes, shows the quadratic function relationships with RI and linear relationships with temperature. Thus, the proposal of this simple-to-fabricate, compact, and low cost sensor shows its possible potential in the sensitive detection field.
