Intensity-Modulated Strain Sensor Based on Fiber In-Line Mach–Zehnder Interferometer

Author

Jiangtao Zhou ; Yiping Wang ; Changrui Liao ; Guolu Yin ; Xi Xu ; Kaiming Yang ; Xiaoyong Zhong ; Qiao Wang ; Zhengyong Li

Author_Institution

Key Lab. of Optoelectron. Devices & Syst. of Minist. of Educ. & Guangdong Province, Shenzhen Univ., Shenzhen, China

Volume

26

Issue

5

fYear

2014

fDate

1-Mar-14

Firstpage

508

Lastpage

511

Abstract

We demonstrated a novel intensity-modulated strain sensor based on a fiber in-line Mach-Zehnder interferometer with a large fringe visibility of up to 17 dB, which was fabricated by splicing a section of thin core fiber between two sections of single mode fibers with one misalignment-spliced joint. Such a strain sensor exhibited an ultrahigh sensitivity of -0.023 dBm/με within a measurement range of 500 με, which is about one order of magnitude higher than that reported in references. Displacement and stress distributions at the misalignment spliced joint were simulated by use of finite element method. In addition, the proposed strain sensor has an advantage of compact size of ~10 mm.

Keywords

Mach-Zehnder interferometers; fibre optic sensors; finite element analysis; intensity modulation; optical fibre fabrication; optical modulation; splicing; strain sensors; thin film sensors; displacement distribution; fiber in-line Mach-Zehnder interferometer; finite element method; intensity modulated strain sensor; misalignment spliced joint; optical fabrication; single mode fibers; stress distribution; thin core fiber section splicing; Joints; Lead; Optical fiber communication; Optical fiber sensors; Tensile strain; Elasto-optical effect; intensity-modulation; misalignment splicing; physical deformation; strain sensor; thin core fiber;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2013.2295826

Filename

6690169