Modal interferometer based on hollow-core photonic crystal fiber for strain and temperature measurement

In this work, sensitivity to strain and temperature of a sensor relying on modal interferometry in hollow-core photonic crystal fibers is studied. The sensing structure is simply a piece of hollow-core fiber connected in both ends to standard single mode fiber. An interference pattern that is associated to the interference of light that propagates in the hollow core fundamental mode with light that propagates in other modes is observed. The phase of this interference pattern changes with the measurand interaction, which is the basis for considering this structure for sensing. The phase recovery is performed using a white light interferometric technique. Resolutions of +/- 1.4 mu epsilon and +/- 0.2 degrees C were achieved for strain and temperature, respectively. It was also found that the fiber structure is not sensitive to curvature. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America