Search

Highlights • Our fiber curvature sensor has merits of inline compact, low cost and sensitive. • Highly sensitivity −15.33 dB/m−1 in the range 3.63–4.69 m−1 is experimentally demonstrated. • Low cross sensitivity 0.018 m−1/°C implies it is insensitive to environmental temperature change. Abstract An inline fiber structure formed by a silica tube spliced between single-mode fibers has been developed and tested for curvature measurement based on anti-resonant reflecting waveguide. A Fabry-Perot resonator with leaky modes of guided light in the silica tube is formed based on anti-resonant effect in the resonant wavelengths, which results in lossy dips in the transmission spectrum. Since the transmission power of the resonant dips is sensitive to structure bending, an inline curvature sensor can be realized. Experimental results reveal a high sensitivity up to −15.33 dB/m−1 in the wide curvature range of 3.63–4.69 m−1. The proposed sensor also demonstrates a low temperature sensitivity 0.27 dB/°C implying a small temperature cross sensitivity 0.018 m−1/°C. Our sensor has its merits of compact, low cost and high sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]