[17p-B303-1~12] 3.14 Optical control devices and optical fibers

[17p-B303-2] Strain sensing based on modal interference in plastic optical fibers:
Operation with partially applied strain

〇Sonoko Hagiwara¹, Tomohito Kawa¹, Yosuke Mizuno¹, Kentaro Nakamura¹ (1.Tokyo Tech)

Keywords:plastic optical fibers, strain sensors, multimodal interference

Strain sensors based on multimodal interference in multimode fibers (MMFs) have been extensively developed, but we have performed all the characterizations by applying strain to the whole length of the MMFs. In this work, using a plastic optical fiber (POF) as an MMF, we investigate the behavioral differences between the cases with strain applied to the whole length and to part of the POF. This result indicates that the strain sensitivity does not depend on the strain magnitude or the length of the strained section, and that the spectral dip shifts for the same amount of wavelength, as long as the displacement of the POF is constant. We believe this finding will be of great use for practical applications of this type of sensor in the future.