DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERIZATION OF PLASTIC OPTICAL FIBER SENSORS FOR REFRACTOMETRY BASED ON AMPLITUDE MODULATION.

In this work, four U-shaped Plastic Optical Fiber (POF) sensors manufactured with a specially developed machine are characterized and implemented for refractometry. The measurement set-up consists of an LED and a photodiode connected to the ends of the fiber, and the signal is detected by a Lock-in Amplifier implemented in Matlab®. The calibration process led to the evaluation of the sensitivity, accuracy and repeatability by using solutions of sucrose for obtaining refractive indexes (RI) in the range 1.33 - 1.39. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]