Strain Insensitive Optical Phase Locked Loop

A strain sensor uses optical fibers including strain insensitive portions and a strain sensitive portion. The optical fibers form a sensitive arm of an optical phase locked loop (OPLL). The use of the OPLL allows for multimode optical fiber to be used in a strain insensitive configuration. Only strain information for the strain sensitive portion is monitored rather than the integrated strain measurements commonly made with optical fiber sensors.