Intrinsic pressure response of a single mode cyclo olefin polymer fiber bragg grating

The intrinsic pressure response of a Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG) inscribed in a single-mode cyclo olefin polymer (COP) microstructured polymer optical fibre (mPOF) in the range 0-200 bar is investigated for the first time. In order to efficiently suppress the effects from changes in temperature and relative humidity the pressure calibration is performed in a gas free environment with the FBG submerged in water. As a result of the incompressible nature of water no temperature effects due to rapid pressure changes are observed. We find a highly linear, hysteresis-free response with a sensitivity of 2.982 ± 0.002 pm/bar. The corresponding fractional sensitivity is found to be 34.5·10-6 MPa-1 which is of the same order of magnitude as the results obtained for a multimode PMMA mPOF-FBG at 1562 nm previously reported in the literature. The resulting pressure resolution of our sensor is estimated to be 2 bar based on a root mean square deviation of 6 pm.