Optical fiber sensor for temperature and strain measurement based on multimode interference and square-core fiber

Abstract

A variety of specialty fibers such as no-core fiber (NCF) have already been studied to reveal their sensing abilities. In this work, we investigate a specialty fiber, square-core fiber, for temperature and strain sensing. A simple single-mode–multimode–single-mode (SMS) fiber sensor was fabricated, consisting of a 30-cm-long square-core fiber. The experimental results indicate that the maximal wavelength-temperature and wavelength-strain sensitivities are −15.3 pm/◦C and −1.5 pm/με, respectively, while the maximal power-temperature and power-strain sensitivities are 0.0896 dBm/◦C and 0.0756 dBm/με. Analysis of the results suggests that the fiber sensor has the potential to be used as a high-sensitivity temperature sensor with a low strain sensitivity.