Abstract

Through use of magnetostrictive coatings or jackets bonded to single-mode optical fibers deployed in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, Dandridge et al.¹ have shown that magnetic-field measurements in the 10⁻⁶-G/m range of fiber can be achieved in the laboratory. The results were in good agreement with the theoretical predictions of Yariv and Winsor² for nickel-coated silica fibers. This paper reports recent progress in exploring very high magnetostriction metallic glasses for use in single-mode fiber magnetic sensors. These materials have been found to otter substantially greater magnetic sensitivities than results reported to date in the literature and make fiber-optic magnetometers attractive for a variety of applications.

© 1982 Optical Society of America