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IOP PUBLISHING MEASUREMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Meas. Sci. Technol. 22 (2011) 075201 (6pp) doi:10.1088/0957-0233/22/7/075201

High force measurement sensitivity with

fiber Bragg gratings fabricated in
uniform-waist fiber tapers
Torsten Wieduwilt, Sven Brückner and Hartmut Bartelt
Institut für Physikalische Hochtechnologie, PF 100 239, 07702 Jena, Germany
E-mail: torsten.wieduwilt@ipht-jena.de

Received 28 October 2010, in final form 31 March 2011

Published 20 May 2011
Online at stacks.iop.org/MST/22/075201

Abstract
Fiber Bragg gratings inscribed in the waist of tapered photosensitive fibers offer specific
attractive properties for sensing applications. A small-diameter fiber reduces structural
influences for imbedded fiber sensing elements. In the case of application as a force-sensing
element for tensile forces, sensitivity scales inversely with the fiber cross-sectional area. It is
therefore possible to increase force sensitivity by several orders of magnitude compared to
Bragg grating sensors in conventionally sized fibers. Special requirements for such Bragg
grating arrangements are discussed and experimental measurements for different fiber taper
diameters down to 4 μm are presented.

Keywords: fiber taper, fiber Bragg grating, fiber sensor, lateral force measurement

1. Introduction effect caused by the fiber may become significant. In

Fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) have been widely used as sensing
elements for a large range of measurands such as temperature,
strain, pressure, vibration, acceleration, etc. They have found
many attractive applications especially for structural health
monitoring on aircraft (e.g. airplane wings) and spacecraft
structures [1], on wind turbines [2], in electric power facilities
(e.g. generator windings, power plant pipelines) and in civil
engineering structures. In most cases such FBGs are inscribed
in conventionally sized optical fibers. A combination of
FBGs with a tapered fiber region has been reported in [3],
and sensor elements with FBGs right in the taper transition
region have been discussed in [4–6]. In applications for
strain measurements, FBGs are embedded into composites
or bonded to the surface of the components by means of
adhesives. In typical strain applications as mentioned above,
substrate stiffness is great (high Young’s modulus, high cross-
section) compared to the bonding layer and the fiber structure
that contains the Bragg grating. Therefore, gratings in
conventionally sized fibers with a diameter of 125 μm do
not have a strong influence on the accuracy of the strain
measurement. However, if Bragg gratings are used to measure
strain on substrates that are very thin or made of materials with
small Young’s modulus (e.g. polymers), the reinforcement
[7], such a reinforcement effect is studied theoretically and
experimentally, and an analytical formula is proposed to
determine the true strain of a structure whose strain is measured
by an FBG bonded to the substrate surface. If FBGs are
embedded into composite materials (e.g. thin thermoplastic
laminates), the fiber can also induce perturbations and defects
in the structure. Therefore, fibers with a diameter significantly
smaller than 125 μm as for conventional fibers are desirable.
In [8] the authors introduced a real-time health monitoring
system based on FBGs inscribed in a fiber with a cladding
diameter of 40 μm (developed specifically by Hitachi Cable
Ltd). In this application, the FBGs were embedded in carbon
fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) composite materials.
However, one difficulty is that highly photosensitive
fibers which are significantly smaller than those typically
used in communication applications are not commercially
available, and the connecting technique to standard fiber-
optical components (light sources, couplers, detectors, etc.)
is difficult. A possible method to avoid these drawbacks
would be to inscribe FBGs in the waist of a uniformly tapered
photosensitive fiber. Additionally, Bragg gratings in such
tapered fibers with small diameters become interesting also for
the measurement of small tensile forces, since force sensitivity
increases strongly with the reduced fiber diameter.

0957-0233/11/075201+06$33.00 1 © 2011 IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK & the USA
Meas. Sci. Technol. 22 (2011) 075201
2. Properties of FBGs as a function of fiber diameter
The application of longitudinal mechanical forces will change
the Bragg wavelength λB of FBGs. Below we will concentrate
on the mechanical effect alone, disregarding the temperature
effect. Correction for temperature effects typically requires
additional reference measurements for compensation. If we
assume a tensile force, a wavelength shift for an FBG in
reflection is achieved according to [9]:
λB
λB = (1 − peff ) F, (1)
EA
where F is the axial force, E is Young’s modulus of the fiber
material, A is the cross-sectional area of the fiber, and peff is
the effective photo-elastic coefficient of the fiber. The value
(1 − peff ) is often called the gauge factor k. The effective
photo-elastic coefficient peff for isotropic materials without
shear strain is described by [9]
n2eff
peff = [p12 − μ (p11 + p12 )] , (2)
2 should be noted that for a taper whose fundamental mode
where μ is the Poisson ratio and p11 and p12 are the components
of the Pockel’s strain-optical tensor of the fiber material. The
effective refractive index neff corresponds to the modal index
of the fundamental mode in the fiber and depends on the
wavelength and the fiber structure.
From (1), it can be concluded that the force sensitivity
SF scales inversely with the fiber cross-sectional area or the
square of the radius of the fiber as long as the strain sensitivity
Sε and Young’s modulus can be considered independent of the
radius:
λB Sε 1
SF = = . (3)
F E · π R2
From our measurements as described in section 4, we found
no indication for a variation of Young’s modulus with radius.
For a tapered optical fiber, the effective refractive index
decreases with reduced taper radius, and consequently the
strain sensitivity is also reduced according to
Sε = (1 − peff ) 2neff , (4)
where peff is a function of neff (see equation (2)) and  is the
Bragg period. These effects become relevant for a taper radius
below 8 μm as discussed in more detail in section 4.
The absolute Bragg wavelength for an FBG in a tapered
fiber depends on the effective refractive index, which can be
calculated by the following equation:
neff,taper
λB,taper = λB,fiber . (5)
neff,fiber
The theoretical maximum reflection Rmax from a uniform FBG
of length L varies with the overlap factor between the mode
field and the Bragg grating according to [9]
 
π · nAC · η · L
Rmax = tanh2 (κL) = tanh2 , (6)
λB
where κ is the coupling coefficient, nAC is the induced
refractive index modulation for sinusoidal variation of the
index perturbation along the fiber axis, η is the mode overlap
(η  1), and λB is the Bragg grating’s center wavelength.
2
T Wieduwilt et al
Figure 1. Bragg wavelength versus ambient refractive index for a
19 μm diameter fiber taper.
In general, for a fiber taper, the overlap factor will be
reduced resulting in a smaller maximum reflection value. It
may spread to the surrounding medium, the Bragg wavelength
is influenced also by the refractive index of that medium.
Figure 1 shows the ambient refractive index dependence of
the Bragg wavelength in the case of a fiber taper with 19 μm
diameter. For an ambient refractive index >1.444, the Bragg
spectrum disappears because then the ambient refractive index
is higher than the effective refractive index of the tapered fiber.
This becomes important in the case of the taper embedded in
composites or bonded on structures.
3. Taper and fiber grating fabrication
For preparing the fiber taper, a CO2 laser heating technique
has been used. The light from a 30 W CO2 laser is divided
by a beamsplitter into two equal beams for illumination of the
fiber from opposite sides and focused to a spot size of about
800 μm diameter. To achieve a defined heating region along
the fiber, both laser beams are scanned by means of movable
mirrors. Two motor-driven linear stages are used to pull the
fiber. The taper-drawing process is computer controlled in
order to provide control over the laser power, the linear stage
motion and the scan amplitude as well as the frequency of the
movable mirrors. During the entire tapering process, the light
transmission and the waist diameter of the taper are measured
and monitored. For the experiments, tapers with a waist length
of 8 mm were used. As an example, figure 2 shows a measured
taper profile for a 5 μm diameter fiber taper.
To guarantee safe handling of the tapered fiber, we
attached the fiber to an aluminum frame by magnetic fixation
at two ends, which kept the fiber straight and prevented
mechanical variations.
For the fabrication of the FBGs, we used a 248 nm KrF
laser and a Talbot interferometer arrangement [10] where the
spatial frequency of the Bragg grating can be changed by
variation of the angle θ FBG of the interferometer mirrors. The
Bragg wavelength is then a function of the effective refractive
Meas. Sci. Technol. 22 (2011) 075201
Figure 2. Plot of a measured fiber taper profile as a function of the
taper length.
index neff in the fiber, the UV laser source wavelength λUV and
the angle θ FBG according to
neff λUV
λB = = 2neff .
sin θFBG
The phase mask has a grating period of 1061 nm. We inscribed
the gratings with a length of 5 mm in the center of the 8 mm
long taper waist.
Two different original fibers, manufactured by the
company j-fiber (Jena, Germany), were used for the FBGs
in tapered fibers. The first fiber was a single-mode fiber with
a Ge-doped core of about 18 mol% and a core diameter of
about 4 μm (j-fiber series PSP). The second, a multimode
fiber, had a much larger Ge-doped core with a Ge doping
of about 36 mol% in the central part and a core diameter of
97 μm. The first fiber would allow FBGs to be inscribed into
tapers with a diameter down to about 20 μm. Due to the larger
photosensitive core area, the second fiber can also be used for
the inscription of FBGs of smaller diameter.
The Bragg wavelength for the tapered fibers is reduced
in comparison to the untapered fiber due to the variation
of the effective refractive index of the fundamental mode.
The difference in the Bragg wavelength for a fiber taper with
19 μm waist diameter (produced from the single-mode fiber
(a)
Figure 4. Bragg spectrum of a taper with a 19 μm waist diameter: (a) reflected intensity versus wavelength on a logarithmic scale and
(b) calculated reflectivity versus wavelength.
T Wieduwilt et al
Figure 3. Reflected intensity versus inscription time for a taper with
19 μm diameter.
mentioned above) is about 10 nm compared to the untapered
fiber.
The gratings were fabricated with an energy density
(7) (fluence) of 265 mJ cm−2 and a repetition rate of 10 Hz. In the
course of our experiments, it was assured that the inscribing
time increased when the taper diameter decreased. In the
case of the sample with 19 μm waist diameter, inscription
took a time of about 50 min to reach the maximum reflection
(figure 3).
The reflectivity achieved in this case was about 1.3%
(figure 4(b)). For an untapered fiber, the maximum reflectivity
was reached already after 10 min.
In the case of smaller taper diameters, a reasonable
reflectivity was possible for the original multimode fiber. For
the investigations, a 20 mm long piece of this fiber was spliced
between two conventional single-mode fibers. The aim was
not to excite all the modes available in the multimode fiber.
Tapers were produced down to a diameter of 3.5 μm. In the
case of a taper waist of 5.5 μm, an FBG reflectivity of 10%
was achieved (figure 5).
In addition to the experimental determination of
reflectivity, the reflectivity of an FBG (L = 5 mm, λB =
1550 nm) in the tapered single-mode fiber was calculated
(via equation (6)) for different values of nAC and compared
(b)
3
Meas. Sci. Technol. 22 (2011) 075201
Figure 5. Bragg spectrum of a 5 mm long FBG in a 5.5 μm
diameter taper waist.
Figure 6. Calculated reflectivity of the Bragg center wavelength
versus taper diameter for different refractive index modulation
values, compared to the experimental results.
with the experimental measurements (figure 6). With these
results, a slightly higher index modulation was observed than
expected from the untapered fiber (nAC ∼ 5×10−4 ). This
might be explained by an enhancement of photosensitivity
resulting from the taper-drawing process [11].
4. Force sensitivity of an FBG in tapered fibers
For the determination of force sensitivity for fiber samples with
diameters >10 μm, the fibers were axially loaded by attaching
different weights on the free end of the fiber, whereas the other
end was fixed to a supporting structure. Tapered fibers of small
diameter were vertically clamped at two ends to an apparatus
containing a force sensor with a resolution of 2 mN and a
manual translation stage with a resolution of 1 μm. In this
case, a tensile force was appplied by means of adjustment at
the translation stage. Care was taken not to introduce any
mechanical twist into the fiber waist.
From the Bragg wavelength shift as a result of the force
applied, the force sensitivity for all samples produced was
derived by means of linear regression. As can be seen in
figure 7 (example of the 19.15 μm diameter fiber taper), an
excellent linear relationship was observed for the wavelength
4
T Wieduwilt et al
Figure 7. Wavelength shift as a function of the axial force (sample
with 19.15 μm diameter fiber taper), with SF = 57.2 nm N−1
Figure 8. Force sensitivity of FBGs inscribed in the taper waist of
the single-mode fiber as a function of taper radius. The data points
represent the mean values of the measured force sensitivity.
shift as a function of force. The slope of the regression can be
interpreted as the force sensitivity in nm N−1 .
Figure 8 shows the force sensitivity of the tapered single-
mode fiber as a function of the taper radius, indicating the
strong increase in force sensitivity for taper diameters below
30 μm.
The experimental data shown in figure 8 were fitted using
a 1/R2 -dependence between the force sensitivity and the taper
radius corresponding to equation (3), without taking into
account the dependence of the effective refractive index on the
radius. This assumption was applied because in the considered
taper radius range (62.5 down to 9.5 μm) the maximum
reduction of the effective refractive index (see figure 9) is
only about 0.7% (19 μm taper in comparison to an untapered
fiber) and would change the value of the force sensitivity by
0.6% only.
For tapers with a radius below ∼8 μm, the variation of
the effective refractive index with radius should be taken into
account.
The fit curve as depicted in figure 8 was obtained from the
software package ‘microcal origin’ using an iterative fitting
Meas. Sci. Technol. 22 (2011) 075201
Figure 9. Calculated effective refractive index versus taper radius
for the photosensitive single-mode fiber (λ = 1550 nm). The dotted
frame shows the taper radius range which was considered for the
single-mode fiber used.
procedure with the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm. The
fitting equation as a result of the fit procedure reads as follows:
Sε 1 nm · μm2 1
SF = = 5254 with R in μm. (8)
E·π R 2 N R2
With Young’s modulus and taper radius known, it is possible
to calculate the strain sensitivity from the force sensitivity and,
hence, the gage factor, by means of the formulas
Sε = π SF ER 2 (9)
and
π SF ER 2 Sε
k= = . (10)
λB λB
According to the literature, Young’s modulus of optical fibers
is somewhere between 69 and 75 GPa; for bulk SiO2 a typical
value of 72.5 GPa is reported. In order to achieve a more
accurate value for the strain sensitivity, we used a mechanical
test machine to determine experimentally Young’s modulus of
the untapered fiber materials. The length of the fiber samples
we used was 575 mm. For the experiments, the protective
coating of the fibers was removed, and the ends of the samples
were glued to aluminum mounting plates. The strain acting
on the fibers was 0.5%. From these tests, we determined
Young’s modulus of the single-mode fiber to be 73 ± 0.5 GPa.
Using the example of the taper with diameter 19.15 ±
0.15 μm, a Bragg wavelength of 1539 nm and a force
sensitivity of 57.2 ± 0.3 nm N−1 , we calculated the strain
sensitivity and the k-factor to be 1.204 ± 0.03 pm με−1 and
0.782 ± 0.02, respectively. The error values as mentioned
above are the maximum absolute errors.
The experimental k-factor is in good agreement with the
value 0.7758 ± 0.0024 as recently reported in [12], which was
determined on an FBG in an untapered fiber with the same
fiber structure. This implies that no taper radius dependence
of Young’s modulus exists in the taper radius range considered.
In the case where an FBG is inscribed in a 19.15 μm taper, the
force sensitivity is higher by a factor of ∼43 in comparison to
an untapered fiber.
5
T Wieduwilt et al
Figure 10. Force sensitivities of FBGs inscribed in the taper waist
of the multimode fiber as a function of the taper radius.
For the multimode fiber, smaller taper diameters are
possible, and therefore an even higher force sensitivity can
be achieved. In figure 10, the experimental results for tapers
from the multimode fiber are shown with taper radii in the
range from 6 to less than 2 μm.
From the data in figure 10 one can derive a force sensitivity
of about ∼1900 nm N−1 for an FBG in a 3.5 μm diameter fiber
taper. This means that force sensitivity is higher by more than
three orders of magnitude compared to an untapered fiber. If
the Bragg peak can be detected to an accuracy of 0.05 nm, it
would be possible to measure forces in the range of 25 μN.
Besides the small diameter, also the higher GeO2 content
(resulting in a smaller Young’s modulus) gives a small
additional improvement in force sensitivity (SF ∼ 1/E,
corresponding to equation (3)). From the literature, it is known
that Young’s modulus of pure GeO2 glass is about 44 GPa
[13, 14]. From the analysis of the experimental measurements,
we have derived a value of Young’s modulus of 70.5 ± 0.5 GPa
for the multimode fiber. Due to the lower value compared to
the single-mode fiber material, an additional increase in force
sensitivity by about 4% can be expected.
In general, the tapered-FBG sensor arrangement could
therefore be attractive due to its high force sensitivity, and also
for measurements of small absolute forces.
5. Conclusion
We have investigated the use of fiber Bragg gratings in the waist
of tapered photosensitive single-mode and multimode fibers
for force measurements. It has been shown that it is possible
to obtain fiber Bragg gratings with reflectivities of around 10%
down to taper radii of less than 3 μm. For small tapers with
a diameter of 3.5 μm, we have derived a force sensitivity
of about 1900 nm N−1 . This force sensitivity is about three
orders of magnitude higher than for FBGs in conventional
optical fibers with a diameter of about 125 μm. Due to the
small axial stiffness of such tapers, FBGs would be suitable
for sensitive strain measurements, e.g. with thin substrates or
materials of small Young’s modulus, or for measurements of
small forces.
Meas. Sci. Technol. 22 (2011) 075201
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Manfred Rothhardt, Martin
Becker, Eric Lindner and Christoph Chojetzki for helpful
discussions.
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