Effects of distributed birefringence on fiber Bragg grating under non-uniform transverse load

Many theoretical and experimental studies have been developed to characterize the spectral response of an optical fiber Bragg grating (FBG) in axial strain fields in recent years. However, comparatively few works were devoted to the evolution of the spectrum when a FBG is subjected to non-uniform transverse load. In this paper, the effects of distributed birefringence on FBG under non-uniform transverse load are analyzed and a numerical simulation based on the piecewise-uniform approach is also discussed to simulate the responses of FBG under some typical non-uniform transverse strain fields. Experiment was carried out using different loads applied at different locations of the FBG. Good agreements between experimental results and numerical simulations have been obtained.