Optical temperature sensor based on ZnO thin film's temperature-dependent optical properties.

A reflective fiber temperature sensor system based on the ZnO thin film is proposed. The transmittance spectra and temperature dependent optical property of the sensing head with ZnO thin film is investigated theoretically and experimentally, and the temperature resolution of ∼1 °C is obtained in the temperature region of 300-773 K. The temperature sensing system is only related to the wavelength shift of transmittance spectra, and has a high stability without depending on the incident light intensity. This research results also indicate a fiber optical sensor with a broad temperature measurement range (10-1800 K) can be gained as a promising temperature sensing device, and can be applied into some extremely environments, such as aircraft, nuclear power station and power transmission system, and so on.