Tunable Polymer Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) Inscription: Fabrication of Dual-FBG Temperature Compensated Polymer Optical Fiber Strain Sensors

Abstract

We demonstrate stable wavelength tunable inscription of polymer optical fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs). By straining the fiber during FBG inscription, we linearly tune the center wavelength over 7 nm with less than 1% strain. Above 1% strain, the tuning curve saturates and we show a maximum tuning of 12 nm with 2.25% strain. We use this inscription method to fabricate a dual-FBG strain sensor in a poly (methyl methacrylate) single-mode microstructured polymer optical fiber and demonstrate temperature compensated strain sensing around 850 nm.