Proceedings Article | 8 January 2007
KEYWORDS: Optical fibers, Composites, Fiber optics sensors, Smart structures, Refractive index, Liquids, Fiber optics, Sensors, Shape memory alloys, Polymer optical fibers
With the increasing development of material technology and electronic
integration technology, optical fiber and its using in smart structure have become hot
in the field of material research. And liquid-core optical fiber is a special kind of
optical fiber, which is made using liquid material as core and polymer material as
optical layer and protective covering, and it has the characteristics of large core
diameter, high numerical aperture, large-scope and efficient spectrum transmission
and long life for using. So the liquid-core optical fiber is very suitable for spectrum
cure, ultraviolet solidification, fluorescence detection, criminal investigation and
evidence obtainment, etc, and especially as light transfer element in some new
structures for the measurement of some signals, such as concentration, voltage,
temperature, light intensity and so on. In this paper, the novel liquid-core optical fiber
is self-made, and then through the test of its light transmission performance in free
state, the relation between axial micro-bend and light-intensity loss are presented.
When the liquid-core optical fiber is micro-bent axially, along with the axial
displacement's increase, output power of light is reducing increasingly, and
approximately has linear relation to micro-displacement in a range. According to the
results liquid-core fiber-optic micro-bend sensor can be designed to measure
micro-displacement of the tested objects. Experimental data and analysis provide
experimental basis for further application of liquid-core optical fiber.
