Fiber optic hydrogen sensor based on an Fabry-Perot interferometer with fiber Bragg grating and nano film

Hydrogen is widely used in industrial production, clinical medicine, and as fuel. Hydrogen becomes explosive when the hydrogen-air mixture ranges from 4 to 76 vol%; thus, a rapid hydrogen concentration measurement is particularly important in practical applications. We present a novel fiber optic hydrogen sensor with fast response fabricated from a graphene-Au-Pd sandwich nano film and an ultrashort fiber Bragg grating. The response time is only 4.3 s at a 3.5 vol% hydrogen concentration. When the measured hydrogen concentration was increased from 0 to 4.5 vol%, the optical resonance dip in the sensor at near 1550 nm shifted by 290 pm. In addition, the sensor has an insertion loss of only −2.22 dB, spectral contrast of 10.8 dB, and spectral finesse of 5. Such a flexible, fast-response sensor is expected to be used in the development of hydrogen sensors with low power consumption.