A. Bhatti et al., Finite element analysis of piezoelectric polymer-coated D-fiber intended for electric field sensing, FIBER IN OP, 19(1), 2000, pp. 79-85
We report, for the first time, the advantage of using a polymer-coated D-fi
ber over conventional circular fiber as the sensing element in an all-fiber
electric field sensor. Finite element analysis has been used to study the
strains in a D-fiber subjected to an external electric field. The optical D
-fiber carrying a transversely poled piezoelectric poly(vinylidene fluoride
) polymer coating was modeled by using three-dimensional stress analysis. T
he response of the D-fiber electric field sensor was determined over a wide
frequency range from 100 Hz to 50 MHz. The modeling predicts that the resu
lting strains will cause a phase shift of 0.06 rad / V/ m in the low-freque
ncy (axially unconstrained) region and 0.002 Pad / V/ m in the high-frequen
cy (axially constrained) region. An increase in the phase modulation sensit
ivity by a factor of 3 compared to conventional circular fiber has been ach
ieved by utilizing the unique properties of the D-fiber structure.