Advances in Multicore Fiber Interferometric Sensors

In this paper, a review of multicore fiber interferometric sensors is given. Due to the specificity of fiber structure, i.e., multiple cores integrated into only one fiber cladding, multicore fiber (MCF) interferometric sensors exhibit many desirable characteristics compared with traditional fiber interferometric sensors based on single-core fibers, such as structural and functional diversity, high integration, space-division multiplexing capacity, etc. Thanks to the unique advantages, e.g., simple fabrication, compact size, and good robustness, MCF interferometric sensors have been developed to measure various physical and chemical parameters such as temperature, strain, curvature, refractive index, vibration, flow, torsion, etc., among which the extraordinary vector-bending sensing has also been extensively studied by making use of the differential responses between different cores of MCFs. In this paper, different types of MCF interferometric sensors and recent developments are comprehensively reviewed. The basic configurations and operating principles are introduced for each interferometric structure, and, eventually, the performances of various MCF interferometric sensors for different applications are compared, including curvature sensing, vibration sensing, temperature sensing, and refractive index sensing.