Waveguide optimization and its evaluation of a doped polymer optical ???ber designed for visual detection of stress

摘要： A fiber-optic strain sensor using a fluorophore-doped polymer optical fiber (POF) was fabricated at various waveguiding conditions. The effects attributed to each structural feature of the sensor were characterized by observing the sensor?s response. Two fluorophores, Coumarin 540A and Rhodamine 6G, were used to dope the core and the cladding of a poly(methyl methacrylate)-based POF, respectively. Using doped POFs with different numerical apertures (NAs), the changes in the fluorophore peaks upon the application of stress were analyzed by applying macrobending (s) to the fiber. Although the sensor response did not show linearity with respect to the NA, it was found that the shape of the Coumarin 540A-attributed peak was a factor that represented the sensor?s sensitivity. As a result, the double-cladding structure demonstrated its effectiveness in improving the stress sensitivity.