Ultrasonic sensitivity-improved fiber-optic Fabry-Perot interferometer using a beam collimator and its application for ultrasonic imaging of seismic physical models

An ultrasonic sensitivity-improved fiber-optic Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) is proposed and employed for ultrasonic imaging of seismic physical models (SPMs). The FPI comprises a flexible ultra-thin gold film and the end face of a graded-index multimode fiber (MMF), both of which are enclosed in a ceramic tube. The MMF in a specified length can collimate the diverged light beam and compensate for the light loss inside the air cavity, leading to an increased spectral fringe visibility and thus a steeper spectral slope. By using the spectral sideband filtering technique, the collimated FPI shows an improved ultrasonic response. Moreover, two-dimensional images of two SPMs are achieved in air by reconstructing the pulse-echo signals through using the time-of-flight approach. The proposed sensor with easy fabrication and compact size can be a good candidate for high-sensitivity and high-precision nondestructive testing of SPMs.