Engineers have developed a new sensor using ¡®sapphire fibre¡¯ that is capable of withstanding temperatures over 2,000 degrees celsius.?
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The tech has been developed by researchers from Remote Applications in Challenging Environments, part of the UK Atomic Energy Authority.?
They claim that its high-temperature resistance could mean it could be run through a jet engine that could collect necessary data and help us better understand emissions and hope to reduce them in future.?
The material also has one more special property -- it¡¯s capable of withstanding radiation. This means it can be used in aerospace equipment as well as for fusion energy generation.?
The material is made from industrially-grown sapphire and is just half a millimetre thick. When light is sent on one end of it, it reflects it back from a point along it. Looking at the colour of that light, one can measure the temperature at that particular point.?
The tech isn¡¯t novel, such sensors have been used in the past and have run into problems since the fibre is vast compared to the light¡¯s wavelength and it can travel through the fibre in different routes, while simultaneously reflecting back different wavelengths.
However, the newer tech breakthrough uses a channel along with the fibre which allows the light to only travel through a tiny cross-section -- around a hundredth of a millimetre wide. This essentially means that the sensor is only able to reflect just a single wavelength of light.
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Rob Skilton, head of research at Remote Applications in Challenging Environments part of the UK Atomic Energy Authority explains, ¡°These sapphire optical fibres will have many different potential applications within the extreme environments of a fusion energy powerplant."
He added, "This technology has the potential to significantly increase the capabilities of the future sensor and robotic maintenance systems in this sector, helping UKAEA in its mission to deliver safe, sustainable, low carbon fusion power to the grid.¡±
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