Fiber Interferometers Based on Low Loss Fusion Splicing of Photonic Crystal Fibers

Abstract

Fiber Interferometers Based on Low Loss Fusion Splicing of Photonic Crystal FibersWe report temperature and strain sensing characteristics of two kinds of in-line fiber interferometers. One interferometer consists of a section of Hollow Optical Fiber(HOF) spliced between two Photonic Bandgap Fibers(PBGF) and the other is built by splicing a section of HOF between two Large Mode Area-Photonic Crystal Fibers(LMA-PCF). To minimize the splice losses, we carefully optimized the heating time and arc current of the splicer so as not to collapse the air holes of the fiber. It is found that the first interferometer has a temperature sensitivity of 15.4 pm/℃ and a strain sensitivity of 0.24 pm/με. The other interferometer exhibits a temperature sensitivity of 17.4 pm/℃ and a strain sensitivity of 0.2 pm/με.