Abstract
The detailed fabrication processes of fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometers (FMZIs) by nanosecond laser-induced micro-plasma and its simple micro-cavity size adjustment are proposed and demonstrated. The fabrication can be divided into 4 processes: (1) heat transfer, (2) micro-plasma formation, (3) micro-plasma expansion and ablation, (4) cooling down and micro-structure formation. The simple micro-cavity size adjustment is proposed based on the above understanding, instead of the “point processing” of femtosecond laser, here only the focus position is required to be moved. The fabricated FMZI exhibits a high sensitivity of -15,811 nm/RIU (refractive index unit) for the index sensing application.
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Acknowledgements
The author acknowledges the scholarship from the China Scholarship Council (201306840047). The authors also would like to thank Dr. Wang Dongdong at Nanjing University of Science and Technology, China, for insightful discussions and cordial help in the lab.
Funding
This work is supported by NSAF, China (No. U1830123), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61627802).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Cai Shuhao. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Cai Shuhao, writing - review and editing were performed by Maksim Sergeev, Andrey Petrov, Sergey Varzhel, and Li Li, founding was acquired by Li Li. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Shuhao, C., Sergeev, M., Petrov, A. et al. The fabrication processes and simple micro-cavity size adjustment of fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer by laser-induced micro-plasma. Opt Quant Electron 55, 321 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-023-04541-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-023-04541-1