Fiber optic polarimetric temperature sensor with high sensitivity

In this paper, a fiber-optic polarimetric temperature sensor is presented. As the sensing element, a single-mode fiber coiled on a cylindrical former with a high thermal expansion coefficient is used. For the construction of a very small sensor, a special fiber with very low bending losses is chosen. The birefringence of the fiber changes with former radius and is determined by suing a measurement setup for full polarization transfer matrix analysis of the sensor. This scheme is independent on fiber leads.