Low cross-sensitivity and sensitivity-enhanced FBG sensor interrogated by an OCMI-based three-arm interferometer.

An FBG sensor interrogated by an optical carrier microwave interferometry (OCMI)-based three-arm Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In our sensing scheme, the interferogram generated by interfering the three-arm-MZI middle arm with the sensing arm and the reference arm respectively is superimposed to produce a Vernier effect to increase the sensitivity of the system. The simultaneous interrogation of the sensing fiber Bragg grating (FBG) and the reference FBG by the OCMI-based three-arm-MZI provides an ideal solution to the cross-sensitivity problems (e.g. temperature vs. strain) associated with conventional sensors that produce the Vernier effect by cascading optical elements. Experimental results show that when applied to strain sensing, the OCMI-three-arm-MZI based FBG sensor is 17.5 times more sensitive compared to the two-arm interferometer based FBG sensor. And the temperature sensitivity is reduced from 371.858 KHz/°C to 1.455 KHz/°C. The prominent advantages of the sensor, including high resolution, high sensitivity, and low cross-sensitivity, make it a great potential for high-precision health monitoring in extreme environments.

Microwave-photonic optical fiber interferometers for wavelength interrogation of fiber Bragg grating sensors with high sensitivity and a tunable dynamic range.

We propose and demonstrate a new, to the best of our knowledge, microwave interference-based scheme with high sensitivity and tunable measurement range, which is realized by a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI). A chirped fiber Bragg grating and single-mode fiber serve as the two unbalanced arms of the RF interferometer. The induced differential chromatic dispersion transfers the wavelength shift of the fiber Bragg gratings to the change of the RF phase difference between the two interferometric carriers, which ultimately leads to the variation of the RF signal intensity. The phase sensitivity can be improved by adjusting the power ratio of the two beams in the interferometer and coarse adjustment of the optical variable delay line (OVDL). The OVDL is also employed to tune the measurement range of the system by adjusting the time delay difference between the two arms of the MZI. The system effectively solves the problem of unavoidable attenuation of the sensitivity of the optical carrier-based microwave interferometry system caused by the change of phase difference due to the change of measurement parameters, avoiding the mutual constraint between the measurement range and high sensitivity.

Distributed strain interrogation with a linearly chirped fiber Bragg grating based on an optoelectronic oscillator.

A novel distributed strain sensor method, to the best of our knowledge, based on a linearly chirped fiber Bragg grating (LCFBG), which can simultaneously determine the strain value and ascertain the position, is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Different from the traditional distributed grating interrogation system via analyzing the optical spectrum of an LCFBG, the system is mainly based on the frequency domain measurement by using an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) structure, which has the characteristics of fast response and high resolution. Based on this structure, when the distributed strain is applied to the LCFBG, the frequency response of the OEO for a reflective point of a certain wavelength will change. The strain value can be obtained by detecting the frequency shift of the OEO. Combined with the one-to-one correspondence between the wavelength and the spatial position of the LCFBG, the exact position of the strain point can be determined. In a proof-of-concept experiment, interrogation of fully distributed grating sensors with nonuniform strain distributions is demonstrated experimentally. A spatial resolution of ∼3µm over a gauge length of 53 mm and a strain resolution of <1µÎµ have been achieved.

Temperature sensor based on fiber Bragg grating combined with a microwave photonic-assisted fiber loop ring down.

A temperature sensor based on fiber Bragg grating (FBG) combined with a microwave photonic-assisted fiber loop ring down (FLRD) is proposed and experimentally investigated. An optical edge filter (OEF) is inserted in the FLRD to provide a wavelength dependent loss; thanks to the linear response of the OEF, the wavelength shift of the FBG caused by the applied temperature is linearly converted to the additional loss of the FLRD. The frequency response of the FLRD is measured by a vector network analyzer (VNA), the time domain ring-down curves are calculated by applying invert faster Fourier transform (IFFT) to the frequency response. Subsequently, the relationship between the ring-down time and the temperature applied to the FBG is obtained. Results show a good linearity between the ring-down time and the temperature. Limited by the VNA used in our experiment, the sensitivity of the proposed sensor is 6.30 ns/°C in the temperature range of 40-45 °C with a resolution of ±0.14 °C.

Interference-free SERS nanoprobes for labeling and imaging of MT1-MMP in breast cancer cells.

The expression of membrane type-1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) in cancer cells is critical for understanding the development, invasion and metastasis of cancers. In this study, we devised an interference-free surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) nanoprobe with high selectivity and specificity for MT1-MMP. The nanoprobe was comprised of silver core-silica shell nanoparticle with a Raman reporter tag (4-mercaptobenzonitrile) embedded in the interface. Moreover, the nitrile group in 4-mercaptobenzonitrile shows a unique characteristic peak in the Raman-silent region (1800-2800 cm-1), which eliminates spectral overlapping or background interference in the Raman fingerprint region (500-1800 cm-1). After surface modification with a targeting peptide, the nanoprobe allowed visualization and evaluation of MT1-MMP in breast cancer cells via SERS spectrometry. This interference-free, peptide-functionalized SERS nanoprobe is supposed to be conducive to early diagnosis and invasive assessment of cancer in clinical settings.

Photonic scanning receiver for wide-range microwave frequency measurement by photonic frequency octupling and in-phase and quadrature mixing.

A photonic scanning receiver with optical frequency scanning and electrical intermediate frequency envelope detection is proposed to implement wide-range microwave frequency measurement. This system applies photonic in-phase and quadrature frequency mixing to distinguish and measure the signals in two frequency bands that mirror each other. Combined with the photonic frequency octupling technique, the proposed system has a frequency measurement range that is 16 times that of the sweeping range of the electrical signal source. Besides, optical frequency sweeping with up and down chirps is used to relax the requirement for precise synchronization between the sweeping source and the analog-to-digital converter. In the experiment, using an electrical sweeping local oscillator having a bandwidth of 1.75 GHz, the system achieves a frequency measurement range as large as 28 GHz. The measurement errors are kept within 24 MHz with an average error of 9.31 MHz.

Deep neural network-assisted high-accuracy microwave instantaneous frequency measurement with a photonic scanning receiver.

A microwave instantaneous frequency measurement system with a photonic scanning receiver is proposed in which deep neural network (DNN)-assisted frequency estimation is used to deal with the system defects and improve the accuracy. The system performs frequency-to-time mapping by optical-domain frequency scanning and electrical-domain intermediate frequency envelop detection. Thanks to the optical frequency multiplication, the system can measure high frequency signals in a large spectral range. The DNN establishes an accurate mapping between the digital samples and real frequencies, based on which high-accuracy measurement is achieved. The measurement of signals from 43 to 52 GHz is experimentally demonstrated. Compared with the direct measurements, the DNN-assisted method achieves obviously reduced average errors of about 3.2 MHz.

Photonics-based dual-functional system for simultaneous high-resolution radar imaging and fast frequency measurement.

A photonics-based dual-functional system is proposed that can simultaneously implement high-resolution radar imaging and fast frequency measurement. In this system, the radar is realized based on photonic frequency doubling and de-chirp receiving, and the frequency measurement is achieved by a novel frequency-to-time mapping method. In the experimental demonstration, the radar works in Ku band with a bandwidth of 6 GHz (12-18 GHz), through which inverse synthetic aperture radar imaging with a resolution as high as ∼2.6 cm×∼2.8 cm is achieved. The frequency measurement module operates in Ka band, which can achieve a measurement frequency range from 28 GHz to 37 GHz, with a measurement resolution of 40 MHz and a refresh rate of 100 kHz.

Self-calibrating and high-sensitivity microwave phase noise analyzer applying an optical frequency comb generator and an optical-hybrid-based I/Q detector.

Phase noise analyzers (PNAs) are indispensable for evaluating the short-term stability of microwave signals. In this Letter, a high-sensitivity PNA with self-calibration capability is proposed based on an optical frequency comb generator and an optical-hybrid-based I/Q detector. The negative factors that result in inaccurate measurement, including the direct component interference, amplitude noises of the microwave signal under test and the laser, and phase noise of the laser, are all eliminated through digital signal processing. A proof-of-concept experiment is performed. The established PNA can achieve accurate phase noise measurement with a high sensitivity of -146.1 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz, and the self-calibrating property of the PNA is also verified.

Wideband microwave phase noise measurement based on photonic-assisted I/Q mixing and digital phase demodulation.

A wideband microwave phase noise measurement system is proposed based on quadrature phase demodulation of the mixing components of a signal under test (SUT) and its delayed replica. The time delay is introduced by a low-loss optical fiber, which can be sufficiently large to achieve a high phase noise measurement sensitivity, and the quadrature phase demodulation is achieved by photonic-assisted in-phase and quadrate (I/Q) mixing together with digital signal processing. Thanks to the optoelectronic hybrid quadrature phase demodulation, the use of feedback loops, which are usually required in conventional photonic-delay-line-based phase noise measurement systems, is avoided, and the measurable frequency range is expanded. An experiment is implemented. Accurate phase noise measurement of SUTs in a frequency range of 5-35 GHz is demonstrated. With a 2-km single-mode fiber serving as the photonic delay line, the phase noise floor is as low as -131 dBc/Hz at the offset frequency of 10 kHz. The proposed scheme can be applied for evaluating the performance of microwave systems using low-phase-noise and wideband tunable microwave sources.