Phase sensitivities of temperature, longitudinal strain or pressure, are very important fiber features in sensing and telecommunication applications. The most common ways to modify such sensitivities are to change the material properties (by adjusting the core doping level) or employ microstructured fibers (which properties strongly depend on the cross-section geometry). We decided to investigate strain sensitivity influenced by effective mode field area and mode field diameter as clear consequence of fiber cross-section geometry. In this paper we present the results of a three dimensional numerical analysis of the correlation between the fiber mode field diameter and its longitudinal strain sensitivity. Both conventional and microstructured (commercially available and custom designed) fibers are investigated. Furthermore we compare the theoretical results with experimental data. To measure fiber sensitivity we developed a dedicated all-fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer which enables the measurement of strain induced phase changes in various fiber types (including conventional and microstructured fibers). As a conclusion of our work we present relationship between strain sensitivity and MFD .

Date Published: 7 March 2014
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 8982, Optical Components and Materials XI, 89821B (7 March 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2040586

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8982:
Optical Components and Materials XI
Michel J. F. Digonnet; Shibin Jiang, Editor(s)