To solve the cavity interrogation problem of short cavity fiber Fabry⁻Perot sensors in white light spectral interrogation with amplified spontaneous emissions (ASEs) as the white light sources, a data processing method, using an improved elliptical fitting equation with only two undetermined coefficients, is proposed. Based on the method, the cavity length of a fiber Fabry⁻Perot sensor without a complete reflection spectrum period in the frequency domain can be interrogated with relatively high resolution. Extrinsic fiber Fabry⁻Perot air-gap sensors with cavity lengths less than 30 μm are used to experimentally verify the method, and are successfully interrogated with an accuracy better than 0.55%.
Keywords: elliptical fitting method; fiber Fabry–Perot sensor; short cavity; white light interference.