This paper describes an electrode-less, all-optical, wideband electric field sensor fabricated in an electro-optic lithium niobate substrate. The sensor component is an integrated optic Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The electric field sensor uses the electro-optic properties of lithium niobate to modulate the phase of the light propagating in each arm of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The phas...

Aircraft structures require periodic and scheduled inspection and maintenance operations due to their special operating conditions and the principles of design employed to develop them. Therefore, structural health monitoring has a great potential to reduce the costs related to these operations. Optical fiber sensors applied to the monitoring of aircraft structures provide some advantages over ...

In this paper, we present an approach to develop an optical gas leak sensor that can be used to measure ethylene, dimethyl ether, and methane. The sensor is designed based on the principles of IR absorption spectrum detection, and comprises two crossed elliptical surfaces with a folded reflection-type optical path. We first analyze the optical path and the use of this structure to design a mini...

The ability to reproduce a high-quality image depends strongly on the image sensor light sensitivity. This sensitivity depends, in turn, on the materials, the circuitry, and the optical properties of the pixel. We calculate the optical efficiency of a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor pixel by using a geometrical-optics phase-space approach. We compare the theoretical ...

The feasibility of detecting small molecules such as pesticides using optical evanescent-wave sensors is discussed with emphasis on the Mach-Zehnder sensor and a newly developed sensor called a ‘critical’ sensor. For direct detection of an estimated average pesticide layer growth of 2X 10m4 nm, the sensitivity of the Mach-Zehnder sensor is almost adequate (lx lo-” nm within one hour), whereas t...

A method to introduce optical fibers technology to physics and engineering students is presented. As the attenuation in an optical fiber depends on several factors including macro bending, an optical fiber angle sensor has been developed. The method used to increase the sensibility of the sensor consisted on side polishing the optical fiber. In the near future is expected to integrate this sens...