All-fiber modal interferometer based on an up-taper-core-offset structure for curvature sensing

A high-sensitivity curvature sensor based on an up-taper-core-offset structure is proposed and demonstrated in this paper. Here two specially designed cascaded up-tapers with maximum diameters of 247 μm and 251 μm, respectively, are used as a cladding mode exciting component. The excited cladding modes will propagate in the cladding and re-couplers with the core mode at the core-offset jointing point. When the curvature is changed, the dip wavelength of the sensor will shift to a blue wavelength and an average curvature sensitivity of more than -12.5 nm/m^-1 is achieved within the measured curvature intervals.