Abstract
A novel intensity-modulated Sagnac loop sensor based on polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber (PM-PCF) in a setup with a dense wavelength division multiplexer (DWDM) for strain measurement is presented. The sensor head is made of PM-PCF spliced to single-mode fibers. The interferometer spectrum shifts in response to the longitudinal strain experienced by the PM-PCF. After passing the Sagnac loop, light is transmitted by a selected DWDM channel, resulting in a change in the output optical power due to the elongation of PM-PCF. Hence, appropriate adjustment of spectral characteristics of the DWDM channel and the PM-PCF Sagnac interferometer is required. However, the proposed setup utilizes an optical power measurement scheme, simultaneously omitting expensive and complex optical spectrum analyzers. An additional feature is the possibility of multiplexing of the PM-PCF Sagnac loop in order to create a fiber optic sensor network.
Highlights
Optical fiber sensors have been widely explored due to their potential advantages, i.e., immunity to electromagnetic interferences, compact size, lightweight and high sensitivity [1]
The strain response of the polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber (PM-PCF) Sagnac interferometer was investigated over the range
The strain response of the PM-PCF Sagnac interferometer was investigated over the range of 0–1500 με inμε steps of 250 the the useuse of translation stages ininorder of 0–1500 in steps of με
Summary
Optical fiber sensors have been widely explored due to their potential advantages, i.e., immunity to electromagnetic interferences, compact size, lightweight and high sensitivity [1]. They could be applied as sensors for temperature [2,3], refractive index [4,5], humidity [6,7] or strain [8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. To overcome the temperature cross-sensitivity of PMF, Dong et al [16] and Han [17] demonstrated the use of polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber (PM-PCF) in order to achieve strain sensing, which is inherently not sensitive to ambient temperature. Current setups based on spectral analysis in order to convert shifts in the transmission spectrum of the interferometer in
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