Chirped POF Bragg grating production utilizing UV cure adhesive coating for multiparameter sensing

Abstract In this work, we obtained chirped Bragg gratings by post-coating uniform poly (methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) microstructured polymer optical fiber Bragg gratings (POFBGs) with an UV cure adhesive. The main advantage of the proposed method consists on being a cost-effective and simple solution, since no special phase mask, additional etching or gradient thermal annealing are required. A comparison between the fabricated chirped Bragg grating’s performance and previous reported methods in the literature is presented. As a compact sensor with two different active areas (adhesive coated and uncoated sections of the POFBG), the developed sensing device can be used for multiparameter sensing, namely for strain, humidity and temperature monitoring. Allying the proposed flexible and low-cost fabrication technique with the intrinsic characteristics of POFs, one may conclude that the developed sensor has high potential for multiparameter sensing in possible future engineering and biomedical applications.