Towards the control of highly sensitive Fabry-Pérot strain sensor based on hollow-core ring photonic crystal fiber

A high sensitivity Fabry-Pérot (FP) strain sensor based on hollow-core ring photonic crystal fiber was investigated. A low-finesse FP cavity was fabricated by splicing a section of hollow-core ring photonic crystal fiber between two standard single mode fibers. The geometry presents a low cross section area of silica enabling to achieve high strain sensitivity. Strain measurements were performed by considering the FP cavity length in a range of 1000 μm. The total length of the strain gauge at which strain was applied was also studied for a range of 900 mm. The FP cavity length variation highly influenced the strain sensitivity, and for a length of 13 μm a sensitivity of 15.4 pm/με was attained. Relatively to the strain gauge length, its dependence to strain sensitivity is low. Finally, the FP cavity presented residual temperature sensitivity (~0.81 pm/°C).