Temperature-insensitive Mach-Zehnder interferometric strain sensor based on concatenating two waist-enlarged fiber tapers

A novel temperature-insensitive strain sensor,based on an in-line Mach-Zehnder interferometer,is fabricated by concatenating two waist-enlarged fiber tapers separated by a short piece of photonic crystal fiber. The interference spectrum of the proposed sensor is analyzed in detail.Experimental results demonstrate that this sensor has a strain sensitivity of.3.02 pm/μεand maintains the temperature insensitivity feature. The proposed sensor has great potential in diverse sensing applications due to its advantages,such as its compact size,low cost,and simple fabrication process.