In-fiber quasi-Michelson interferometer with a core-cladding-mode fiber end-face mirror.

An in-fiber quasi-Michelson interferometer working on reflection is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The device consists of a short section of multimode fiber (MMF) followed by a single-mode fiber (SMF) whose end face is terminated by a thick silver film. The MMF excites cladding modes into downstream SMF via the mismatched-core splicing interface. The core-cladding modes are reflected back by the silver film and recoupled to the core of lead-in SMF through the MMF. A well-defined interference pattern is obtained as the result of core-cladding mode interference. A configuration with a 40 mm pigtail SMF at a wavelength of 1528 nm exhibits a water level sensitivity of -49.8 pm/mm and a liquid refractive index sensitivity of -574.6 (pm/mm)/RIU (refractive index unit). In addition, the selected dip provides a considered temperature sensitivity of -61.26 pm/°C and a high displacement sensitivity of -1018.6 pm/mm.