We report on experimental studies of polarimetric sensitivity to torsion in spun highly birefringent fibers. Two classes of spun fibers were examined, namely spun side-hole fibers and birefringent microstructured fibers with different birefringence dispersion, spin pitches, and spin directions. The polarimetric sensitivity to torsion was determined by monitoring a displacement of the spectral interference fringes arising in the output signal because of interference of polarization modes and induced by an additional fiber twist. Both the experimental results and the analytical predictions showed that the sensitivity to torsion normalized to the fringe width in the spun highly birefringent fibers increased asymptotically with the twist rate to the value of 1/ π rad-1. We have also studied the polarimetric response to temperature in the spun side-hole fibers. We have found that, in contrast to the torsional sensitivity, the temperature sensitivity decays asymptotically to zero with increasing fiber twist rate. Therefore, the spun fibers with short spin pitches are especially well suited for torsion measurements because the torsional sensitivity and the range of linear response are both enhanced in such fibers, while at the same time, the cross-sensitivity to temperature is reduced.
Keywords: highly birefringent fibers; sensitivity to torsion; spun fibers.