Resonant fiber-optic strain and temperature sensor achieving thermal-noise-limit resolution.

In the area of fiber-optic sensors (FOSs), the past decade witnessed great efforts to challenge the thermal-noise-level sensing resolution for passive FOS. Several attempts were reported claiming the arrival of thermal-noise-level resolution, while the realization of thermal-noise-level resolution for passive FOSs is still controversial and challenging. In this paper, an ultrahigh-resolution FOS system is presented with a sensing resolution better than existing high-resolution passive FOSs. A fiber Fabry-Perot interferometer as the sensing element is interrogated with an ultra-stable probe laser by using the Pound-Drever-Hall technique. Both strain and temperature measurements are carried out to validate the performance of the sensor. The measured noise floor agrees with the theoretical thermal noise level very well.