Abstract

In this work, we report on the realization of Lab on fiber accelerometers based on micro-opto-mechanical cavities on the optical fiber tip. We investigated two sensing configurations. In the former one, the opto-mechanical cavity includes a simple cantilever suspended on the optical fiber end facet. In the latter, the opto-mechanical structure consists of a membrane sustained by four cantilevers. Sensor design was carried out by numerical simulations based on the finite element method. Cantilever based accelerometers have been realized by using a ferrule top approach, whilst membrane based accelerometers have been realized through a photolithographic process followed by a transferring step for the final integration on the optical fiber tip. Different accelerometers have been fabricated with different geometrical features and characterized by using a shaking table. Either cantilever and membrane based Lab on fiber accelerometers exhibited a sensitivity of about 0.1nm/(m/s²) on a 3dB-bandwidth of 5kHz with a resolution down to 100µg/(Hz)^1/2.

© 2020 The Author(s)