Ultrasensitive strain sensor based on Vernier-effect improved parallel structured fiber-optic Fabry-Perot interferometer

A novel parallel structured fiber-optic Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) based on Vemier-effect is theoretically proposed and experimentally demonstrated for ultrasensitive strain measurement. This proposed sensor consists of open-cavity and closed-cavity fiber-optic FPI, both of which are connected in parallel via a 3 dB coupler. The open-cavity is implemented for sensing, while the closed-cavity for reference. Experimental results show that the proposed parallel structured fiber-optic FPI can provide an ultra-high strain sensitivity of -43.2 pm/mu epsilon, which is 4.6 times higher than that of a single open-cavity FPI. Furthermore, the sensor is simple in fabrication, robust in structure, and stable in measurement. Finally, the parallel structured fiber-optic FPI scheme proposed in this paper can also be applied to other sensing field, and provide a new perspective idea for high sensitivity sensing. (C) 2019 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement