Scientists have demonstrated a new fiber-optic sensing method that detects strain and displacement by reading interference patterns directly in the electrical spectrum of a photodetected signal. The same principle can also be extended to displacement sensing using an air-gap structure between. Fiber optic strain sensors are a type of sensor that uses the principles of light and optical fibers to measure strain, deformation, and other physical quantities within a material or structure. Fiber-Bragg-Gratings (FBGs) are used for spot sensing, whereas Rayleigh, Brillouin and Raman scattering are used for distributed sensing in long fibers. This pioneering approach leverages a polymer optical fiber-based single-mode–multimode–single-mode.
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