Abstract

The discovery of photosensitivity in germanosilicate fibers¹ and the invention of the side writing technique² has enabled the mass-production of fiber Bragg gratings for communication applications. In parallel, Bragg gratings have also been actively pursued in the area of distributed and multiplexed sensing systems.³ However, Bragg grating sensors suffer from a small temperature sensitivity (0.014 nm/°C at 1300 nm) and often require complex and expensive interferometric techniques to detect measurand-induced wavelength shifts. We propose novel long- period grating-based optical fiber sensors that possess high sensitivities and simple demodulation schemes, and can be easily configured for multiparameter measurements.

© 1996 Optical Society of America