Characterisation of a new polymer optical fibre with enhanced sensing capabilities using a Bragg grating
LEAL-JUNIOR, A.
; Theodosiou, A.
; Frizera-Neto, A. Frizera-Neto
; Pontes, M. J. Pontes
; SHAFIR, E.
; PALCHIK, O.
; TAL, N.
; ZILBERMAN, S.
; BERKOVIC, G.
;
Antunes, P.
; Kalli, K.
; Marques, C.
Optics Letters Vol. 43, Nº 19, pp. 4799 - 4802, October, 2018.
ISSN (print): 0146-9592
ISSN (online): 1539-4794
Scimago Journal Ranking: 1,71 (in 2018)
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1364/OL.43.004799
Abstract
We present results for the mechanical characterisation of a Bisphenol-A acrylate based polymer optical fibre (POF) manufactured using a novel Light Polymerization Spinning (LPS) process. The particular manufacturing process allows the development of POFs having unique mechanical characteristics, which result from an exceptionally low Young’s modulus. The lower Young’s modulus enables optical sensors for measuring stress or pressure with improved sensitivity and potentially a higher tuneable mechanical range than conventional POFs. Moreover, properties such as the storage modulus variations with respect to the temperature and humidity were studied. Fibre Bragg gratings (FBGs), were inscribed in the POF using the plane-by-plane femtosecond laser, direct-write method for selective FBG mode excitation, and were characterised for changes to temperature, pressure, and relative humidity. The response of FBGs in this LPS-POF, for all the three aforementioned measurands, was several times higher than that measured for conventional POFs.
