title: Fiber-optic bending vector sensor based on Mach-Zehnder interferometer exploiting lateral-offset and up-taper.
abstract: A simple, compact, and highly sensitive optical fiber directional bend sensor is presented. This device consists of a lateral-offset splicing joint and an up-taper formed through excessive fusion splicing method. The lateral-offset splicing breaks the cylindrical symmetry of the fiber and defines a pair of directions along which the bending response of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer transmission spectrum is different and thus could be used for bending vector measurement. For a curvature range from -3 to 3 m(-1), the bending sensitivities at 1463.86 nm and 1548.41 nm reach 11.987 nm/m(-1) and 8.697 nm/m(-1), respectively.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Optical Information Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, Institute of Modern Optics, Nankai University, Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Shanshan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Weigang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Shecheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Pengcheng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Geng
authors.forename: Xiaolin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xue