Temperature-compensated fiber optic strain sensor based on polarization-rotated reflection

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A novel structure for a temperature-compensated fiber-optic strain sensor has been demonstrated both in reflection and in transmission configuration. In the transmission configuration the sensor consists of two identical (sensing and compensating) parts of a highly birefringent bow-tie polarization-maintaining fiber, spliced at 90 deg in relation to their polarization axes. If both parts remain at the same temperature, their total temperature-induced phase retardation will cancel out. The reflection configuration, incorporating the principle of polarization-rotated reflection, also has this structure but in addition requires a reflective mirror deposited at the end of the sensing section and a polarization-preserving coupler to separate the output signal. This sensor can operate using straightforward and cost-effective electronic signal processing and its gauge factor is at least 2 orders of magnitude greater than that of the most sensitive conventional strain gauges.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: