A high-sensitivity sensor based on tapered dispersion compensation fiber for curvature and temperature measurement

Abstract A high-sensitivity sensor based on a tapered dispersion compensation fiber (DCF) structure that consists of a 6 mm DCF spliced between single-mode fibers (SMFs) is proposed for measuring curvature and temperature. A Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) was introduced by fabricating a taper at the first splicing joint. In the experiment, the intensity of the interference dips had a very high linear response to curvature changes with low temperature cross-sensitivity (0.0012 dB/ ∘ C). The results demonstrated a maximum curvature sensitivity of up to 15.19 dB/m−1 within a linear range of 0.98-1.753 m − 1 , and the temperature sensitivity was 79.8 pm/ ∘ C with a range of 25–60 °C. Therefore, the cross-sensitivity was solved by monitoring two independent parameters, in which the wavelength shifts for temperature sensing and the intensity variations for curvature sensing. With its compact structure and high sensitivity, the proposed sensor has potential application value in some fields, such as building structural health monitoring and alerting.