Ultra-High-Sensitivity Humidity Fiber Sensor Based on Harmonic Vernier Effect in Cascaded FPI

In this study, an ultra-high-sensitivity fiber humidity sensor with a chitosan film cascaded Fabry–Perot interferometer (FPI) based on the harmonic Vernier effect (HVE) is proposed and demonstrated. The proposed sensor can break the limitation of the strict optical path length matching condition in a traditional Vernier effect (TVE) FPI to achieve ultra-high sensitivity through the adjustment of the harmonic order of the HVE FPI. The intersection of the internal envelope tracking method allows spectra demodulation to no longer be limited by the size of the FSR of the FPI. The sensitivity of the proposed sensor is −83.77 nm/%RH, with a magnification of −53.98 times. This work acts as an excellent guide in the fiber sensing field for the further achievement of ultra-high sensitivity.Keywords:Fabry–Perot interferometer;chitosan film sensor;optical fiber humidity sensor;harmonic Vernier effect