Fabrication of Externally Microstructured Flat Optical Fibre for In-process Monitoring of Laminated Composite Structures

Flexible planar photonics has opened-up new sensing opportunities [1], including new monitoring capability within high-value composite materials (such as carbon and glass fibre reinforced epoxy). Thin planar substrates effectively self-align to the plies of a composite material. Using polarisation changes and known alignment of the substrate orthogonal strain components can be decoupled [2], permitting higher fidelity monitoring [3].