Single-mode fibre coupler as refractometer sensor

We report a simple, non-intrusive fibre-optic refractometer sensor for measuring the refractive index of liquid and optically transparent solid medium. Sensing principle of the proposed sensor is based on monitoring the back-reflected light signal through the second input port of a 2 x 1 single-mode fibre coupler when light signal from the output port is focussed at the interface of air and a liquid or solid medium and back-reflected exactly along the same path. Depending on the refractive index of the medium, the amount of back-reflected intensity would vary and in the present work we exploit this principle to measure the refractive index of an optically transparent medium. Variation of refractive index as small as 0.001 RIU can be measured with our proposed sensor.