In-fiber rectangular air fabry-perot strain sensor based on high-precision fiber cutting platform

An in-fiber rectangular air Fabry-Perot (FP) strain sensor based on a high-precision fiber cutting platform (HFCP) is proposed. The HFCP consisting of a CCD notation system, a micro-displacement platform, and an optical fiber cleaver can be used to precisely control the length of FP cavity. The microcavity of FP (even only tens of microns) with smooth reflective surface can be realized easily by using this system. The FP structures with different cavity lengths have been fabricated in this paper. Simulation and experimental results prove that the shorter length the cavity has, the higher strain sensitivity and the larger free spectral range (FSR) the sensor obtains. The strain sensitivity and FSR of in-fiber rectangular air FP sensor with a cavity length of 35 µm can be up to 2.23 pm/με and 28.5 nm respectively. Moreover, the proposed FP strain sensor has a negligible temperature sensitivity in the range of 25-75 °C. It is anticipated that such easy making, compact and low-cost fiber-optic strain sensors could find important applications in practice.