Tilted fiber Bragg gratings in multicore optical fibers for optical sensing

Abstract

We have inscribed a tilted fiber Bragg grating (TFBG) in selected cores of a multicore optical fiber. The presence of the TFBG permits to couple light from the incident-guided mode to the cladding modes and to the neighbor cores, and this interaction can be used for optical sensing. We measured different magnitudes: strain, curvature magnitude and direction, and external refractive index. The curvature results show a linear dependence of the maximum crosstalk with the curvature magnitude with a sensitivity of 2.5  dB/m−1 as the curvature magnitude increases and at the same time a wavelength shift of 70  pm/m−1. Changes in the external refractive index gradually vanish the cladding modes resonances and the crosstalk between the different cores, obtaining a reduction of the 90% of the optical spectra integral area for refractive indexes between 1.398 and 1.474.