In order to meet application requirements, dependence of the Brillouin frequency shift to strain should be enhanced. We evaluated the influence of several optical fiber dopants on Brillouin scattering strain sensitivity. Based on a FEM-2D modeling, we developed a model for Brillouin gain spectrum and its strain sensitivity. Geometrical profile, doping composition and drawing conditions are taken into account. We show alumina is a very interesting dopant to enhance strain sensitivity in optical fibers. This result is experimentally validated: up to 0.0639MHz/μƐ is obtained with a 5.2mol% Al₂O₃ doped fiber. We expect to reach 0.1MHz/μƐ with 25mol% doping level.

Date Published: 2 June 2014
PDF: 4 pages
Proc. SPIE 9157, 23rd International Conference on Optical Fibre Sensors, 915730 (2 June 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2059535

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9157:
23rd International Conference on Optical Fibre Sensors
José M. López-Higuera; Julian D. C. Jones; Manuel López-Amo; José Luis Santos, Editor(s)