Measurements of polarimetric sensitivity to hydrostatic pressure, strain and temperature in birefringent dual-core microstructured polymer fiber

Novel birefringence interrogation for Sagnac loop interferometer sensor with unlimited linear measurement range

A novel demodulation method for Sagnac loop interferometer based sensor has been proposed and demonstrated, by unwrapping the phase changes with birefringence interrogation. A temperature sensor based on Sagnac loop interferometer has been used to verify the feasibility of the proposed method. Several tests with 40 °C temperature range have been accomplished with a great linearity of 0.9996 in full range. The proposed scheme is universal for all Sagnac loop interferometer based sensors and it has unlimited linear measurable range which overwhelming the conventional demodulation method with peak/dip tracing. Furthermore, the influence of the wavelength sampling interval and wavelength span on the demodulation error has been discussed in this work. The proposed interrogation method has a great significance for Sagnac loop interferometer sensor and it might greatly enhance the availability of this type of sensors in practical application.

Temperature-compensated distributed hydrostatic pressure sensor with a thin-diameter polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber based on Brillouin dynamic gratings

A temperature-compensated distributed hydrostatic pressure sensor based on Brillouin dynamic gratings (BDGs) is proposed and demonstrated experimentally for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. The principle is to measure the hydrostatic pressure induced birefringence changes through exciting and probing the BDGs in a thin-diameter pure silica polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber. The temperature cross-talk to the hydrostatic pressure sensing can be compensated through measuring the temperature-induced Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) changes using Brillouin optical time-domain analysis. A distributed measurement of hydrostatic pressure is demonstrated experimentally using a 4-m sensing fiber, which has a high sensitivity, with a maximum measurement error less than 0.03 MPa at a 20-cm spatial resolution.

Highly birefringent polymer side-hole fiber for hydrostatic pressure sensing

We report on the fabrication of a birefringent side-hole polymer optical fiber with an elliptical core made of polymethyl metacrylate-polystyrene (PMMA/PS) copolymer and pure PMMA cladding. The fiber core is located in a narrow PMMA bridge separating the holes. Two fibers with different bridge thickness were fabricated and characterized. We demonstrate, experimentally and numerically, that, by narrowing the bridge between the holes, one can increase simultaneously the fiber birefringence and the polarimetric sensitivity to hydrostatic pressure. In the fiber with the bridge as narrow as 5 μm, we achieved a record-high polarimetric sensitivity to hydrostatic pressure ranging between 175 and 140 rad/MPa/m in the spectral range of 600-830 nm. The phase modal birefringence in this fiber is also high and exceeds 3×10(-5) at 600 nm, which results in small polarization cross talk.

Simultaneous multi-parameter measurement using Sagnac loop hybrid interferometer based on a highly birefringent photonic crystal fiber with two asymmetric cores

We have experimentally investigated the multi-parameter sensing characteristics in a novel all-fiber Sagnac loop hybrid interferometer based on a highly birefringent photonic crystal fiber with two asymmetric cores. The sensor device was based on a combination of two types of in-fiber interferences, the intra-core-mode Sagnac interference and the inter-core-mode Mach-Zehnder interference due to the distinct birefringent properties associated with the asymmetric cores. Fast Fourier transform analysis on the transmission spectra of the device exhibited six clear peaks in the spatial frequency domain. By examining the phase shift responses of two distinct Sagnac and one Mach-Zehnder interference peaks, the response matrix that enable simultaneous measurement of torsion, strain, and temperature could be obtained. The proposed all-fiber Sagnac loop hybrid interferometer has the advantages such as simplicity of the device structure, compact device size, and capability for simultaneous sensing of multiple parameters.

Fiber Bragg gratings in hole-assisted multicore fiber for space division multiplexing

In this Letter we present, for the first time to our knowledge, the results of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) inscription in a novel microstructured multicore fiber characterized by seven single-mode isolated cores. A clear Bragg reflection peak can be observed in all of the 7 cores after one inscription process with a KrF nanosecond laser in a Talbot interferometer set up. We furthermore perform a numerical analysis of the effective refractive indices of the particular modes and compare it with the FBG inscription results. An experimental analysis of the strain and temperature sensitivities of all of the Bragg peaks is also included.

Polymer optical microstructured fiber with birefringence induced by stress-applying elements

We report on the fabrication of a birefringent microstructured PMMA fiber with polystyrene stress-applying elements located in the solid part of the cladding. A microstructured part of the cladding composed of three rings of holes was made of a technical-grade PMMA by a drilling method. The fiber shows a relatively high birefringence of the order of 4×10(-5), which weakly depends upon wavelength in the investigated spectral range from 0.6 to 1 μm. The cross talk between polarization modes is lower than -20  dB for a 1 m long fiber, while the fiber loss is about 8  dB/m at 0.83 μm. We also studied the fiber response to temperature in the range from 20°C to 60°C. The temperature induced birefringence change is negative and shows a significant hysteresis in the first cycle, which gradually disappears in successive cycles.

Intermodal coupling of supermodes in a twin-core photonic crystal fiber and its application as a pressure sensor

In this paper, we experimentally demonstrated the fabrication and hydrostatic pressure characteristics of a twin-core photonic crystal fiber (TC-PCF). Mode couplings in the TC-PCF for x- and y-polarizations were analyzed simultaneously using group effective index of guiding modes. The output spectrum of the TC-PCF was modulated due to the combined couplings of the two polarizations. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time to measure hydrostatic pressure through the dual-polarization mode coupling in a TC-PCF. The measured sensitivity of the pressure sensor was -21 pm/MPa. The length of the TC-PCF used for pressure measurement was 20 cm, which is much shorter than pressure sensor based on PM-PCF, and does not require any external polarizing components, meaning that it is a good candidate for compact pressure sensor.

Side-hole two-core microstructured optical fiber for hydrostatic pressure sensing

A novel side-hole two-core microstructured optical fiber (STMOF) is proposed for hydrostatic pressure sensing. The two solid fiber cores are surrounded by a few small air holes and two large air holes, and are separated by one small air hole in the center of the cross section of the STMOF. The two large air holes that we called side holes essentially provide a built-in transducing mechanism to enhance the pressure-induced index change, which ensures the high sensitivity of the hydrostatic pressure sensor based on the STMOF. Mode coupling between the two fiber cores of the STMOF has been investigated, which provides a pressure-dependent transmission spectrum by injecting a broadband light into one fiber core of the STMOF on one side and detecting output spectrum on another fiber core on the other side. Our simulations show that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the hydrostatic pressure applied on the STMOF and the peak wavelength shift of the transmission spectrum. A hydrostatic pressure sensor based on an 8 cm STMOF has a sensitivity of 0.111 nm/Mpa for the measurement range from 0 Mpa to 200 Mpa. The performances of hydrostatic pressure sensors based on STMOFs with different structure parameters are presented.