Dual polarization fiber grating laser hydrophone

Abstract

A novel fiber optic hydrophone based on the integration of a dual polarization fiber grating laser and an elastic diaphragm is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The diaphragm transforms the acoustic pressure into transversal force acting on the laser cavity which changes the fiber birefringence and therefore the beat frequency between the two polarization lines. The proposed hydrophone has advantages of ease of interrogation, absolute frequency encoding, and capability to multiplex a number of sensors on a single fiber by use of frequency division multiplexing technique.