Superfine multiresonant fiber grating sensors assisted with silica capillaries

We propose and demonstrate a superfine multiresonant fiber grating sensor characterized by superior spectral resolution and enhanced sensing capabilities. This sensor can be easily constructed by inserting a tilted fiber Bragg grating (TFBG) probe into a silica capillary filled with a refractive index (RI) matching oil. As the fiber cladding, the RI-matching oil, and the capillary all have the same RI, the cladding modes excited by the TFBG can extend into the RI-matching oil and capillary, facilitating surface sensing outside the capillary. Our study shows that the number of cladding modes increases, and the resonance spectrum becomes denser as the outer diameter of the capillary gets larger. As a result, the detection accuracy of RI based on mode cutoff wavelength identification can be improved. Particularly, with a capillary diameter of 1 mm, the heightened spectral density enhances refractometric accuracy by nearly an order of magnitude compared to the intrinsic TFBG. The superfine multiresonant fiber grating sensor proposed here is flexible in configuration and easy to fabricate, providing a new strategy for developing new fiber sensing devices.