Simultaneous measurement of torsion and strain at high temperature by using a highly birefringent cladding fiber Bragg grating
Baijie Xu, Jun He, Xizhen Xu, Jia He, Kuikui Guo, Weijia Bao, Runxiao Chen, Shen Liu, Changrui Liao, Yiping Wang
Abstract
We demonstrate the fabrication of a new highly birefringent cladding fiber Bragg grating (Hi-Bi CFBG) consisting of a pair of sawtooth stressors near the fiber core by using a femtosecond laser direct writing technology. The unique sawtooth structure serves as in-fiber stressor and also generates Bragg resonance due to its periodicity. After optimization of laser pulse energy, the Hi-Bi CFBG with a high birefringence of 2.2 × 10 −4 and a low peak reflectivity of ∼ -24.5 dB (corresponding to ∼ 0.3%) was successfully fabricated in a conventional single-mode fiber (SMF). And then, a wavelength-division-multiplexed Hi-Bi CFBGs array and an identical Hi-Bi CFBGs array were successfully constructed. Moreover, a simultaneous measurement of torsion and strain at high temperature of 700 °C was realized by using the fabricated Hi-Bi CFBG, in which the torsion can be deduced by monitoring the reflection difference between the two polarization peaks and strain can be detected by measuring polarization peak wavelength. A high torsion sensitivity of up to 80.02 dB/(deg/mm) and a strain sensitivity of 1.06 pm/µɛ were achieved. As such, the proposed Hi-Bi CFBG can be used as a mechanical sensor in many areas, especially in structural health monitoring at extreme conditions.