SPECIAL ISSUE ON OPTICAL FIBER SENSORS AND APPLICATIONS

The basic suggestion that optical fiber technology could be useful in sensors dates back well over 40 years. Various ideas and techniques have been proposed and developed for various measurements and applications. Optical fiber sensors have certain advantages, including immunity to electromagnetic interference, light weight, small in size, highly sensitive, with large bandwidth and ease in implementing multiplexed or long-distance distributed sensors. New ideas are continuously being proposed and tested for not only various traditional parameters such as strain, displacement, temperature, and pressure, but also for new applications such as biosensors. Articles on optical fiber sensors have already begun to appear in many application subjects, such as civil engineering, sensors, power engineering, chemical engineering, and bioengineering. In the future, special waveguides, such as photonic crystal fibers, will enable many new sensing mechanisms and sensor configurations; lasers with ultranarrow line or pulse width will permit longer sensing span and finer spatial resolution; and improved microfabrication technologies will continue to improve sensor performance, functionality, reliability, and capability of harsh environment operation. With continuing effort and enthusiasm, the application fields of optical fiber sensors will be extended, and more commercial successes will almost certainly be found.