An Inline Airborne Molecular Contaminants Sensor Based on Optical Microfiber

Abstract

The rudimental airborne molecular contaminants (AMCs) will obviously reduce the lifetime of the lens widely used in the high peak power laser system. An inline AMCs sensor based on the optical microfiber (OM) is here proposed. When the AMCs adhere on the profile of sensing OM, the covering film would disturb the evanescent field transmitted out of the OM, and an additional loss would occur due to the absorptive attribution of the AMCs. The relationship between the thickness of the covering film and the additional loss is numerically calculated.