Fiber-optic accelerometer based on a modal interferometer using a thin-core fiber

A compact fiber-optic accelerometer based on a modal interferometer, which is fabricated by misaligned splicing of a short section of a thin-core fiber between two sections of a standard single-mode fiber, is demonstrated experimentally. A spectrum analysis method is used to detect an acceleration signal rapidly. The experimental results show that the thin-core fiber-based fiber-optic accelerometer has a minimum detectable acceleration of 3.3×10–3g (g – gravitational acceleration), and a wide frequency response range from 10 to 1200 Hz. Moreover, the proposed accelerometer exhibits the advantages of low cost, simple structure and easy fabrication.