All-Fiber Curvature Sensor Based on Multimode Interference

Author

Gong, Yuan ; Zhao, Tian ; Rao, Yun-Jiang ; Wu, Yu

Author_Institution

Key Lab. of Opt. Fiber Sensing & Commun. (Educ. Minist. of China), Univ. of Electron. Sci. & Technol. of China, Chengdu, China

Volume

23

Issue

11

fYear

2011

fDate

6/1/2011 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

679

Lastpage

681

Abstract

A fiber-optic curvature sensor based on the single-mode-multimode-single-mode (SMS) fiber structure is developed. Several notches in the transmitted spectrum of the SMS fiber structure are generated due to the multimode interference effect. The dependence of the wavelength shifts and intensity changes of three transmission notches on the applied curvature are different from each other. The maximum sensitivities of wavelength-curvature and intensity-curvature relationships are - 10.38 nm/m^-1 and - 130.37 dB/m^-1 respectively. By properly choosing to measure wavelength shifts or intensity changes, high sensitivity measurement of curvature over a large scale can be obtained. The wavelength of the second notch is insensitive to the curvature change, offering the possibility for simultaneous measurement of curvature and other parameters such as temperature or strain.

Keywords

fibre optic sensors; light interferometry; light transmission; strain measurement; temperature measurement; SMS fiber structure; all-fiber curvature sensor; fiber-optic curvature sensor; multimode interference; single-mode-multimode-single-mode fiber structure; transmission notches; Interference; Optical fiber networks; Optical fiber sensors; Optical fibers; Sensitivity; Wavelength measurement; Curvature; fiber-optic sensors; multimode interference;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2011.2123086

Filename

5724275