Capillary based hybrid fiber sensor in a balloon-like shape for simultaneous measurement of displacement and temperature

In this work, a hybrid sensor based on a silica capillary in a balloon-like shape for simultaneous measurement of displacement and temperature is proposed for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. The sensor is fabricated by splicing a segment of a hollow core fiber between two single mode fibers (SMF) and by bending the fiber in a balloon shape with the capillary at the top-center position. In a transmission scheme, the SMF-capillary-SMF configuration excites an antiresonant (AR) guidance and the balloon shape enhances a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI). The different responses of the interferometers to external displacement and temperature variations are conducive to a hybrid application of the sensor for simultaneous measurement of these parameters. Experimental results show that, for a capillary length of 1.2 cm and a balloon length of 4 cm, AR is insensitive to displacement and its sensitivity to temperature is 14.3 pm/°C, while the MZI has a sensitivity to displacement of 1.68 nm/mm and twice the sensitivity of AR to temperature, of 28.6 pm/°C. The proposed fiber sensor consists of only one sensing element in one configuration exciting two interferometers at the same time, which makes it of simple fabrication as well as low cost.