A high performance and low-cost polarimetric fiber-optic pressure sensor

In this paper we present the working principle, fabrication and operation of a high performance, but low-cost, polarimetric pressure sensor using standard single-mode fibers. The measurement system exploits the coupling between the two orthogonally polarized fundamental modes in a standard fiber and is based on the direct evaluation of the power variation along a predefined linear polarization. The transducer is made by few loops of fiber sandwiched between two plates and its sensitivity can be tailored by changing the number of loops and position.