Intensity measurement bend sensors based on periodically tapered soft glass fibers.

We demonstrate a technique for tapering periodically an all-solid soft glass fiber, consisting of two types of lead silicate glasses, by the use of a focused CO(2) laser beam and investigate the bend sensing applications of the periodically tapered soft glass fiber. Such a soft glass fiber with periodic microtapers could be used to develop promising bend sensors with a sensitivity of -27.75 μW/m(-1) by means of measuring the bend-induced change of light intensity. The proposed bend sensor exhibits a very low measurement error of down to ±1%.