Fiber optic sensors fabricated from standard silica fibers have many advantages
over conventional sensors like small size, portability, durability and immunity to
electromagnetic fields. Unfortunately, these sensors are not suitable for use in
harsh environments where the temperatures are greater than 700°C and large
working stresses are involved. Sapphire fiber-based sensors present an
attractive alternative for use in such environments. The material properties of
sapphire like high melting point, extreme hardness and relative imperviousness
to chemical reactions, coupled with the advantages of optical fiber sensing,
enhance the performance of these sensors for rugged use. Unfortunately,
commercial sapphire fiber that is currently available has higher optical
attenuation than silica fiber and is costlier. 0, it is prudent to use a small length
of sapphire fiber as a sensor head, which is then spliced to a standard
singlen10de silica fiber which acts a lead-in/lead-out fiber to the sapphire sensor
head. This thesis investigates possible splicing techniques to fabricate such a
sensor set-up. Comparative results from experiments performed on splices that
have been obtained by each of these techniques, are presented. Furthermore,
two different sensor configurations using a sapphire fiber, spliced to a silica
fiber, are developed, and the results of preliminary tests are presented.
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