Fiber Fabry-Perot interferometer for curvature sensing

Abstract

A curvature sensor based on an Fabry-Perot (FP) interferometer was proposed. A capillary silica tube was fusion spliced between two single mode fibers, producing an FP cavity. Two FP sensors with different cavity lengths were developed and subjected to curvature and temperature. The FP sensor with longer cavity showed three distinct operating regions for the curvature measurement. Namely, a linear response was shown for an intermediate curvature radius range, presenting a maximum sensitivity of 68.52 pm/m-1. When subjected to temperature, the sensing head produced a similar response for different curvature radii, with a sensitivity varying from 0.84 pm/°C to 0.89 pm/°C, which resulted in a small cross-sensitivity to temperature when the FP sensor was subjected to curvature. The FP cavity with shorter length presented low sensitivity to curvature.