Cladding waveguide gratings in standard single-mode fiber for 3D shape sensing.

Femtosecond laser pulses were used for the direct point-by-point inscription of waveguides into the cladding of standard single-mode fibers. Homogeneous S-shaped waveguides have been processed as a bundle of overlapping lines without damaging the surrounding material. Within these structures, FBGs have been successfully inscribed and characterized. A sensor device to measure the bending direction of a fiber was created by two perpendicular inscribed cladding waveguides with FBG. Finally, a complete 3D shape sensor consisting of several bending sensor planes, capable of detecting bending radii even below 2.5 cm is demonstrated.

LED-Absorption-QEPAS Sensor for Biogas Plants.

A new sensor for methane and carbon dioxide concentration measurements in biogas plants is presented. LEDs in the mid infrared spectral region are implemented as low cost light source. The combination of quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy with an absorption path leads to a sensor setup suitable for the harsh application environment. The sensor system contains an electronics unit and the two gas sensors; it was designed to work as standalone device and was tested in a biogas plant for several weeks. Gas concentration dependent measurements show a precision better than 1% in a range between 40% and 60% target gas concentration for both sensors. Concentration dependent measurements with different background gases show a considerable decrease in cross sensitivity against the major components of biogas in direct comparison to common absorption based sensors.

Detection of molecular oxygen at low concentrations using quartz enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy.

Molecular oxygen is detected at low concentrations using photoacoustic spectroscopy despite its unfavorable photoacoustic properties. The system consists of a seed laser diode, a tapered amplifier and a quartz tuning fork based spectrophone, thus employing quartz enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS). With this system a detection limit of 13 ppm is reached with a compact and long term stable setup. Further improvement of the detection limit is possible by adding suitable gases to the sample gas that promote the radiationless de-excitation of the oxygen molecules.