12 - Fiber optics in sensor instrumentation

Abstract

Fiber optic instrumentation has progressively evolved since early 1980 following the successful development of optical fiber networks for telecommunication applications. To a large degree, optical fiber sensor instrumentation has taken advantage of the maturing component market for telecommunications use and its progress has been dictated by it. Initially, a significant level of research effort was put into developing sensor systems based on the use of multimoded optical fibers, but as the bias in long-haul telecommunications moved toward the use of single moded optical fibers for improved performance, optical fiber sensor systems began to accept the use of single-mode techniques as well as multimode fiber methods. In addition, the development of compact disc (CD) systems has made available low-cost, high-reliability laser diode devices (both single-mode and multimode) that have added further to the advancement of optical fiber sensor systems.