Highly sensitive transverse load sensing with reversible sampled fiber Bragg gratings

We present the implementation of optical load sensors utilizing mechanically induced reversible sampled fiber Bragg gratings (SFBGs). The load is measured by the reflectivity of the first-order Fourier component of the induced SFBGs. The theoretical and experimental characterization indicates that such SFBGs can be tailored to realize load sensors with high sensitivity of near-linear response and free of influence from environmental and system noises. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.