Strain and temperature effects on erbium-doped fiber for decay-time based sensing

An experimental investigation into the strain and temperature sensitivity of the fluorescence decay time in commercial erbium-doped optical fiber has been carried out. Results show that a strain effect on the performance of temperature-based sensors using such fiber is larger than that for neodymium-doped fiber, but a little smaller than is seen in similar ytterbium-doped material. For the materials studied, the relative change in lifetime ranges from about 5x10(-7) (for Yb) to 14x10(-7) (for Nd) mu epsilon(-1) and the associated error in the temperature measurement ranges from 1.8x10(-3) (for Nd) to 6.1x10(-3) K mu epsilon(-1) for the Yb sample used. The application to simultaneous strain and temperature monitoring is discussed. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(00)03701-1].