Fiber sensor review

It is well known that optical techniques offer extremely high precision in metrological applications, particularly if the technique is based upon optical interferometry. Unfortunately, it has been very difficult to apply these high precision techniques outside the laboratory as environmental perturbations tend to cause rapid misalignment of the optical components. Another factor that has also limited the application of optics outside the laboratory is the requirement of a ‘line of sight’ between all the optical components making it difficult to achieve remote sensing. This situation has changed dramatically during recent years with the incorporation of fibre optic waveguides into sensors, where the fibre optic waveguide can act as the sensor or simply serve as a transceiver link to transfer light to a remote sensor; the remote sensor being fabricated either from the fibre or from conventional optical components.