Untethered photonic sensor for wall pressure measurement

Maurizio Manzo and Tindaro Ioppolo

In this Letter, we study a novel untethered photonic wall pressure sensor that uses as sensing element a dome-shaped micro-scale laser. Since the sensor does not require any optical or electrical cabling, it allows measurements where cabling tends to be problematic. The micro-laser is made by a mixture of Trimethylolpropane Tri(3-mercaptopropionate), commercial name THIOCURE and Polyethylene (glycol) Diacrylate (PEGDA) mixed with a solution of rhodamine 6G. Two different volume ratios between the THIOCURE and the PEGDA are studied, since different ratios lead to different mechanical properties. In addition, two different sensor configurations are presented: (i) sensor coupled to a membrane, that allows differential wall pressure measurement and (ii) sensor without membrane that allows absolute wall pressure measurement. The sensitivity plots are presented in the paper for both sensor configurations and polymer ratios.

DOI