Sensors and Actuators A 195 (2013) 139–141

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Sensors and Actuators A: Physical

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/sna

An optical fiber curvature sensor based on photonic crystal fiber modal

interferometer
Huaping Gong, Haifeng Song ∗ , Xiaorui Li, Jianfeng Wang, Xinyong Dong
Institute of Optoelectronic Technology, China Jiliang University, Xueyuan Street, Xiasha Higher Education Zone, Hangzhou 310018, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: An optical fiber curvature sensor based on photonic crystal fiber (PCF) modal interferometer is demon-
Received 22 November 2012 strated. The sensor is fabricated by a length of 5 cm PCF which is spliced between two single mode
Received in revised form 18 January 2013 fibers (SMF). The result shows that this sensor is sensitive to curvature with a sensitivity coefficient of
Accepted 18 February 2013
4.451 nm m−1 in the range of 0–2.14 m−1 , and the resolution of the curvature measurement is about
Available online 27 February 2013
4.4 × 10−3 m−1 . The temperature sensitivity of the sensor is only 7.78 pm/◦ C, so it is more suitable for
curvature measuring.
Keywords:
© 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Optical fiber curvature sensor
PCF
Modal interferometer

1. Introduction of these above sensors, offset-splicing or tapered technology was

Optic fiber curvature sensors have attracted a lot of inter-
ests due to their wide applications in bending measurement
area. And several configurations of optical fiber curvature sensors
have been reported, such as embedded long-period fiber grat-
ing (LPG) [1,2], fiber multimode interference combined with a
LPG [3], phase-shifted LPG [4], fiber Bragg grating (FBG) writ-
ten in multimode fiber [5], etched FBG [6], FBG in multi-core
fiber [7], polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber (PM-PCF)
based Sagnac interferometer [8,9], etc. However, the fabrication
of FBG or LPG is complicated and they are also very sensitive
to temperature, which will lead to the cross sensitivity. Sagnac
interferometer based on PM-PCF needs a 3 dB coupler and a polar-
ization controller, which would lead to a complicated structure
and large size. Recently, modal interferometers based on PCF are
widely investigated because these devices have the advantages of
simple, compact structure, small size, high sensitivity, and insensi-
tive to temperature. Bo Dong [10] presented a curvature sensor
with PM-PCF based interferometer, and the curvature range is
0.125–0.333 cm−1 . Ming Deng [11] demonstrated a bending sensor
based on PCF Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) with a sen-
sitivity of 3.046 nm m−1 . Kai Ni [12] put forwarded a curvature
sensor based on tapered photonic crystal fiber interferometer with
the measurement range of 0.36–1.34 m−1 . But in the fabrication
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 15068767241.
E-mail address: 253033715@qq.com (H. Song).
used, which would make the structure fragile and easy to break. So
these structures are not suitable for curvature measurement.
In this paper, an optical fiber curvature sensor based on PCF
modal interferometer was proposed. This sensor was composed
of a compact sandwich structure, which was fabricated by col-
lapse splicing a section of 5 cm PCF to SMF. And the sensitivity
coefficient of 4.451 nm m−1 was achieved in the curvature range
of 0–2.14 m−1 . This sensor exhibits the advantages of simple
structure, robustness, small size, high sensitivity and temperature
insensitivity.
2. Principle and experiment setup
Fig. 1 shows the experimental setup and the structure of the SC-
PCF (solid-core photonic crystal fiber) based interferometer. The
input light source is broadband light source (BLS) with wavelength
of 1450–1650 nm, the corresponding transmission spectrum was
acquired by optical spectrum analyzer (OSA) with a resolution of
20 pm. The interferometer was fabricated by collapse splicing a sec-
tion of 5 cm PCF (LMA10) to SMF, and the length of collapsed region
is about 200 ␮m. The right inset of Fig. 1 shows the cross sectional
view of the PCF. The air hole diameter and the pitch are 1.8 ␮m and
7.1 ␮m, respectively. The core and outer diameters of the PCF are
10.7 ␮m and 125 ␮m, respectively. The numerical aperture of the
PCF is 0.12.
The two ends of the sensing head are placed on two translation
stages with an initial separation of 17 cm and then one stage is
moved inward to change the separation distance of the two stages

0924-4247/$ – see front matter © 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sna.2013.02.022
140 H. Gong et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 195 (2013) 139–141

Fig. 1. Experimental setup and the structure of the SC-PCF (A, B: collapsed region).

accurately. In this way, different curvatures could be applied on the about 4.451 nm m−1 was achieved, which is similar to the bending
fiber sensor. The fiber curvature is given by [13], sensors based on PCF modal interferometers [10,12]. And the range
1 2h of curvature measurement is 0–2.14 m−1 , which is larger than the
= = 2 (1) other optical fiber curvature sensors [10–12]. The resolution of the
r h + a2
curvature measurement is about 4.4 × 10−3 m−1 , which is limited
where h is the bending displacement at the center of the PCF sensing by the setting of 20 pm wavelength resolution of the OSA.
section; r is the curvature radius, and a is the half of the distance The curvature experiment was performed carefully to avoid
between the two clamps. vibration, and the whole setup is in a temperature-controlled
When the light passes through the input SMF and enters into the environment. Moreover, every time the curvature is changed,
collapse region (A) of SC-PCF, the fundamental core mode spreads the measurement instrument must be all stable and then data
out widely. The portion of the light is coupled into the cladding
layer of the PCF, and another portion of the light is coupled into the
core of the PCF. The two portion of the light is transmitted in the
PCF. The two beams are combined at the second collapsed region
(B), and re-coupled back into the core of the lead-out SMF. This
forms the all-fiber modal interferometer [14]. The transmission of
the modal interferometer is expressed by [15],
 
1/2 2neff L
T = Ico () + Icl () + 2[Ico ()Icl ()] cos (2)


where neff is the effective index difference, L is the length of the

SC-PCF. Therefore, the fringe periodicity (S) of the modal inter-
ference is associated with the refractive index difference between
these modes, which can be described as: S ≈ 2 /(neff L).
When a curvature is applied, a corresponding force will be
induced on the PCF, and the effective index difference of the
core and cladding modes will change. The peak wavelength m
in the transmission spectrum of this modal interferometer can be
expressed by [16].
2neff L Fig. 2. Transmission spectrum of the sensor at zero curvature.
m = (3)
(2m + 1)
where m is the interference order. So the variation of curvature will
lead to a wavelength shift of the dip or peak in the transmission
spectrum.

3. Results and discussion

Fig. 2 shows the transmission spectrum of the sensor at the room

temperature with zero curvature. It can be observed that interfer-
ence patterns exist in the transmission spectrum. Fig. 3 shows the
output spectra of the sensor under different curvatures, and those
numbers in circles are representing the peak wavelength of the
transmission spectrum with different curvatures. When the curva-
ture was varied from 0 to 2.14 m−1 , the wavelength peak shows
a red shift. And the wavelength of the peak was changed from
1526.537 nm to 1535.78 nm, corresponding to a total wavelength
shift about 9.243 nm. The wavelength shift of the peak as a function
of curvature change was shown in Fig. 4. The wavelength shift has a
linear relationship with the curvature change, and the sensitivity of Fig. 3. Wavelength shift of 1526.537 nm under different curvatures.
 H. Gong et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 195 (2013) 139–141
Fig. 4. Wavelength shift of the sensor versus curvature.
Fig. 5. Wavelength shift of the transmission dip versus temperature.
is recorded. Therefore, comparatively accurate results can be
acquired, and the influence of other physic quantity can be avoided.
The temperature characteristic of the curvature sensor based
on modal interferometer was also investigated. The sensor was
put in a temperature-controlled oven. Every step of the temper-
ature change was sustained for a constant time, in order to confirm
the uniform heating of the SC-PCF. The wavelength of the dip in
the transmission spectrum had a red shift when temperature was
increased from 25 ◦ C to 75 ◦ C. And the wavelength shift had a lin-
ear relationship with temperature change, as shown in Fig. 5. The
temperature sensitivity of 7.78 pm/◦ C was achieved. The device
is temperature-insensitive, as both the core and the cladding of
PCF are made of pure silica, and the pure silica has low thermal
expansion coefficient and low thermo-optic coefficient. The corre-
sponding curvature measurement error due to temperature effect
was about 0.0017 m−1 /◦ C, which is less than the resolution of curva-
ture measurement. Therefore, the proposed curvature sensor has
an advantage of temperature insensitivity, which is useful to the
practical applications.
141
4. Conclusion
In this paper, a curvature sensor based on PCF modal inter-
ferometer is demonstrated. The complete collapse of microholes
in the PCF introduces a high sensitivity to the curvature change.
The wavelength shift has a linear relationship with the curvature
change. The curvature sensitivity of about 4.451 nm m−1 is achieved
in the range of 0–2.14 m−1 , and the measurement resolution is
about 4.4 × 10−3 m−1 . In addition, the temperature sensitivity of
this sensor is only 7.78 pm/◦ C, and it has no obvious influence to
the curvature measurement. And this sensor is not only sensitive
to curvature, but also sensitive to transverse load, strain and other
physical parameters. Therefore, this sensor has great potential in
many different applications.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Natural Science Fund of Zhe-
jiang Province, China (nos. Y1110687, Y1110700), and China 973
program (no. 2010CB32064)
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