Publications

Fiber-optic current sensors based on polarization coherence and power scattering in magneto-optical films

Hsu, Alan Y.; Robinson, Alex L.; Cernosek, R.W.

Fiber-optic sensors for sensing electrical current are attractive due to their inherent immunity to electromagnetic interference. Several groups have shown the use of Faraday rotation in magneto-optical materials as a function of current-induced magnetic field. In this work, fiber-optic sensors based on different mechanisms such as magnetic-fielddependent polarization coherence and power scattering effects in magneto-optical materials are demonstrated. These novel sensor configurations can have advantages in that they exhibit power-independent or polarization-independent operation which can ultimately lead to fewer components and relaxed light source requirements compared to fiber-optic current sensor systems based on Faraday rotation.