Brillouin scattering effect in the multicore optical fiber applied to fiber optic shape sensing

A shape sensor exploiting Brillouin scattering measurements in multicore fibers is presented. Based on previous reports1, the shape sensor’s principle of operation is firstly described. The presented idea is realized through Brillouin Frequency Shift (BFS) measurements in the time domain along the entire multicore fiber. The BFS value is related to the strain value in each core and the differential inter-core strains lead to the bend radius and orientation. Authors present an experimental demonstration of the shape sensor using a 7-core microstructured optical fiber.