Fabrication of in-line modal couplers based on multicore fibers and their applications to fiber-optic sensors

Abstract

We propose an in-line modal coupler based on a multicore fiber (MCF) which can be readily fabricated by using the adiabatic tapering method. The intermodal coupling of the in-line modal coupler apparently generated the transmission oscillation of the center core and the multiple side core modes depending on the waist diameter. The reduction of the waist diameter of the adiabatically tapered MCF could dramatically change its sensitivities to strain, temperature, and ambient index. We believe that experimental results are very useful to fabricate the in-line modal coupler based on the MCF and to improve the performance of the fiber-optic sensors by controlling the waist diameter of the adiabatically tapered MCF.