Multicore fiber-Bragg-grating-based directional curvature sensor interrogated by a broadband source with a sinusoidal spectrum

Multi-Core Fiber Bragg Grating and Its Sensing Application

With the increase in the demand for large-capacity optical communication capacity, multi-core optical fiber (MCF) communication technology has developed, and both the types of MCFs and related devices have become increasingly mature. The application of MCFs in the field of sensing has also received more and more attention, among which MCF fiber Bragg grating (FBG) devices have received more and more attention and have been widely used in various fields. In this paper, the main writing methods of MCF FBGs and their sensing applications are reviewed. The future development of the MCF FBG is also prospected.

Supermode Bragg grating inscribed in a strongly coupled seven-core fiber and its responses to temperature and curvature

A Bragg grating is successfully inscribed in a piece of strongly coupled seven-core fiber (SCF). There are two separate Bragg resonance notches observed in the transmission spectrum, corresponding to backward coupling of HE₁₁-like and HE₁₂-like supermodes of the SCF. The mode coupling mechanism of the Bragg grating is theoretically investigated via modeling and analyzing modal properties of the SCF. The theoretical results agree well with the experimental results. Since the SCF is spliced between two standard single mode fibers with central alignments at both ends, the transmission spectrum of the device also contains a set of interference fringe due to modal interference between the supermodes. The device's responses to temperature and curvature are experimentally measured, respectively. The obtained temperature sensitivities and curvature sensitivities of the supermode Bragg grating notches are 9.55 pm/°C and 9.55 pm/°C, -1.8 pm/m^-1 and -112.3 pm/m^-1, respectively. The obtained temperature sensitivity and curvature sensitivity of one of the interference spectrum dips are 11.8 pm/°C and -3909.8 pm/m^-1, respectively. This device is potentially useful for simultaneous measurement of temperature and curvature.

Learning to sense three-dimensional shape deformation of a single multimode fiber

Optical fiber bending, deformation or shape sensing are important measurement technologies and have been widely deployed in various applications including healthcare, structural monitoring and robotics. However, existing optical fiber bending sensors require complex sensor structures and interrogation systems. Here, inspired by the recent renewed interest in information-rich multimode optical fibers, we show that the multimode fiber (MMF) output speckles contain the three-dimensional (3D) geometric shape information of the MMF itself. We demonstrate proof-of-concept 3D multi-point deformation sensing via a single multimode fiber by using k-nearest neighbor (KNN) machine learning algorithm, and achieve a classification accuracy close to 100%. Our results show that a single MMF based deformation sensor is excellent in terms of system simplicity, resolution and sensitivity, and can be a promising candidate in deformation monitoring or shape-sensing applications.

Advances in Multicore Fiber Grating Sensors

In recent years, multicore fiber (MCF) has attracted increasing interest for sensing applications, due to its unique fiber structure of multiple parallel cores in a single fiber cladding, which offers a flexible configurable platform to establish diverse functional fiber devices for sensing applications. So far, a variety of discrete fiber sensors using MCF have been developed, among which one of the major categories is the MCF grating sensors. The most distinct characteristic of MCF that differs from the normal single mode fibers is that the off-center cores of a MCF are sensitive to bending, which is caused by the bending induced tangential strain in off-center waveguides through either compression or stretching. The bending sensitivity has been widely developed for bending/curvature sensing or measuring physical parameters that are associated with bending. In this paper, we review the research progress on MCF-based fiber grating sensors. MCF-based diverse fiber grating sensors will be introduced, whose working principles will be discussed, and various types of applications of the MCF grating sensors will be summarized. Finally, the challenges and prospects of MCF grating for sensing applications will be presented.

Femtosecond laser auto-positioning direct writing of a multicore fiber Bragg grating array for shape sensing

A multicore fiber Bragg grating (MC-FBG) array shape sensor is a powerful tool for a variety of applications. However, the efficient fabrication of high-quality MC-FBG arrays remains a problem. Here, we report for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, a new method of directly writing FBG arrays in a seven-core fiber (SCF) through the protective coating using femtosecond laser auto-positioning point-by-point technology, which is accomplished by image recognition and micro-displacement compensation. An MC-FBG array consisting of 140 individual FBGs with a grating length of 2 mm was successfully inscribed into seven cores of a 440 mm-long SCF. Each core contained 20 wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) FBGs with wavelengths ranging from 1522.11 nm to 1579.28 nm. In other words, the MC-FBG array consisted of 20 WDM nodes with an interval of 2 cm along the fiber, and each node contained seven identical FBGs integrated in parallel into the fiber cross-section. Moreover, the fabricated MC-FBG array exhibited a strong orientation dependence in bend sensing, with a maximum sensitivity of 55.49 pm/m^-1. Subsequently, 2D and 3D shape sensing were demonstrated using the fabricated MC-FBG array, with maximum reconstruction errors per unit length of 4.51% and 10.81%, respectively. Hence, the MC-FBG arrays fabricated using the proposed method are useful in many applications, such as posture monitoring, smart robotics, and minimally invasive surgery.

Hollow Core Bragg Fiber-Based Sensor for Simultaneous Measurement of Curvature and Temperature

In this paper, the hollow core Bragg fiber (HCBF)-based sensor based on anti-resonant reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW) model is proposed and experimentally demonstrated for simultaneous measurement of curvature and temperature by simply sandwiching a segment of HCBF within two single-mode fibers (SMFs). The special construction of a four-bilayer Bragg structure provides a well-defined periodic interference envelope in the transmission spectrum for sensing external perturbations. Owing to different sensitivities of interference dips, the proposed HCBF-based sensor is capable of dual-parameter detection by monitoring the wavelength shift. The highest curvature sensitivity of the proposed sensor is measured to be 74.4 pm/m^-1 in the range of 1.1859-2.9047 m^-1 with the adjusted R square value of 0.9804. In the meanwhile, the best sensitivity of temperature sensing was detected to be 16.8 pm/°C with the linearity of 0.997 with temperature range varying from 25 to 55 °C. Furthermore, with the aid of the 2 × 2 matrix, the dual demodulation of curvature and temperature can be carried out to realize the simultaneous measurement of these two parameters. Besides dual-parameter sensing based on wavelength shift, the proposed sensor can also measure temperature-insensitive curvature by demodulating the intensity of resonant dips.

Co-located angularly offset fiber Bragg grating pair for temperature-compensated unambiguous 3D shape sensing

A 10 mm-long three-dimensional shape sensor in a single-mode fiber is described and demonstrated experimentally. The sensor is based on a pair of fiber Bragg gratings inscribed at the same location along the fiber axis but offset along different radial directions away from the fiber center. Each offset grating generates cladding mode resonances over a ${\sim}{20}\;{\rm{nm}}$-wide spectral bandwidth, and the two gratings are also offset in period so that their transmission spectra are separated by 40 nm, and thus non-overlapping and fully distinguishable. Directional bending sensitivity results from the differential amplitude response of the cladding mode resonances from the two gratings, depending on the relative orientation of the bend with the azimuthal direction of the grating offsets. It is further demonstrated that both axial deformation and temperature have no influence on the shape measurement as they both only cause a global wavelength shift of the spectra without amplitude change. The experimental results demonstrate that the shape orientation of an object can be unambiguously determined for bend directions covering the full 360° range around the fiber axis with sensitivities of the order of ${{1}}\;{\rm{dB/}}{{\rm{m}}^{- 1}}$ and small curvatures between 0 and ${{1}}\;{{\rm{m}}^{- 1}}$.

Design and analysis of a fiber-optic sensing system for shape reconstruction of a minimally invasive surgical needle

This paper presents the performance analysis of the system for real-time reconstruction of the shape of the rigid medical needle used for minimally invasive surgeries. The system is based on four optical fibers glued along the needle at 90 degrees from each other to measure distributed strain along the needle from four different sides. The distributed measurement is achieved by the interrogator which detects the light scattered from each section of the fiber connected to it and calculates the strain exposed to the fiber from the spectral shift of that backscattered light. This working principle has a limitation of discriminating only a single fiber because of the overlap of backscattering light from several fibers. In order to use four sensing fibers, the Scattering-Level Multiplexing (SLMux) methodology is applied. SLMux is based on fibers with different scattering levels: standard single-mode fibers (SMF) and MgO-nanoparticles doped fibers with a 35–40 dB higher scattering power. Doped fibers are used as sensing fibers and SMFs are used to spatially separate one sensing fiber from another by selecting appropriate lengths of SMFs. The system with four fibers allows obtaining two pairs of opposite fibers used to reconstruct the needle shape along two perpendicular axes. The performance analysis is conducted by moving the needle tip from 0 to 1 cm by 0.1 cm to four main directions (corresponding to the locations of fibers) and to four intermediate directions (between neighboring fibers). The system accuracy for small bending (0.1–0.5 cm) is 90\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\%$$\end{document}% and for large bending (0.6–1 cm) is approximately 92\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\%$$\end{document}%.

Selective fiber Bragg grating inscription in four-core fiber for two-dimension vector bending sensing

The paper presents selective fiber Bragg grating (FBG) inscription in four-core fiber based on a phase mask scanning method. The inscription factors are systematically investigated, which involves fiber core position and focused laser beam size in fiber, etc. Several specific inscriptions (including individual, dual and all inscriptions) are demonstrated. Two orthogonally positioned cores are selectively inscribed and applied to two-dimension vector bending measurement. The measured bending sensitivities of two FBGs range from -54.3 pm/m^-1 to 52.2 pm/m^-1 and -53.7 pm/m^-1 to 52.8 pm/m^-1, respectively. More importantly, it has been revealed that their sensitivities versus bending direction follow regular cosinoidal and sinusoidal distribution. The direction and amplitude of the vector bending can be recovered using measured central wavelength shifts of those two FBGs.

Temperature-insensitive optical tilt sensor based on a single eccentric-core fiber Bragg grating

This Letter presents a simple temperature-insensitive optical tilt sensor based on a single eccentric-core fiber Bragg grating (ECFBG). By partly inserting an ECFBG into a ceramic ferrule, the reflection spectrum of the ECFBG splits into two peaks as a result of the applied tilt angle. The magnitude and direction of inclination in one dimension can be determined by monitoring the wavelength separation between both peaks, which is inherently insensitive to temperature. The proposed tilt sensor has a good linear response within a wide dynamic range of ±45°, with a sensitivity of 0.012 nm/°, with a resolution of 0.83°, and with an accuracy of 0.41°. Being free from any inherent mechanical joint/friction, along with the advantages of a compact structure, good repeatability, and low cost, the proposed sensor is highly suitable for practical engineering applications.

Two-dimensional vector bending sensor based on seven-core fiber Bragg gratings

We demonstrated a two-dimensional vector-bending sensor by use of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) inscribed in a homogeneous seven-core fiber. Seven FBGs were simultaneously inscribed in each of all seven cores using a modified Talbot interferometer and a lens scanning method. The vector bending response of six outer-core FBGs was investigated at all 360° directions with a step size of 15°. The bending sensitivities of the six outer-core FBGs display six perfect '8'-shaped patterns in a polar-coordinate system. That is, they exhibit strong bending-direction dependence with a maximum sensitivity of 59.47 pm/m^-1. The orientation and amplitude of the vector bending can be reconstructed using measured Bragg wavelength shifts of any two off-diagonal outer-core FBGs. So, the six outer-core FBGs have 12 combinations for bend reconstruction, which can be averaged across multiple reconstructions to develop an accurate two-dimensional vector bending sensor. The average relative error was lower than 4.5% for reconstructed amplitude and less than 2.8% for reconstructed orientation angle θ. Moreover, the seven-core FBGs offer several advantages such as a compact structure, fabrication flexibility, and the temperature compensating ability of central-core FBG.