Temperature-insensitive Mach-Zehnder interferometric strain sensor based on concatenating two waist-enlarged fiber tapers

Abstract

A novel temperature-insensitive strain sensor, based on an in-line Mach-Zehnder interferometer, is fabricated by concatenating two waist-enlarged fiber tapers separated by a short piece of photonic crystal fiber.The interference spectrum of the proposed sensor is analyzed in detail.Experimental results demonstrate that this sensor has a strain sensitivity of 3.02 pm/µε and maintains the temperature insensitivity feature.The proposed sensor has great potential in diverse sensing applications due to its advantages, such as its compact size, low cost, and simple fabrication process.