Spun FBG Sensors With Low Polarization Dependence Under Transverse Force

External perturbation such as transverse force can increase the birefringence of most fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs). As a result, the interrogation accuracy of an FBG-based sensor may be significantly deteriorated due to an uncertain wavelength shift caused by the variation of polarization state of the input light. In the experiments, the reflection spectra of the FBG-based strain sensors made of the spun and conventional single-mode fibers were compared under different transverse forces when the polarized and unpolarized light was injected, respectively. It is shown that the spun FBG sensors have lower polarization dependence on, and consequently stronger resistance to, transverse force than the conventional FBG sensors