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1014 FIBER OPTICS IN SENSING AND MEASUREMENT

IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 6, NO. 6, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2000
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Fiber Optics in Sensing and Measurement

Brian Culshaw, Member, IEEE

Invited Paper

Electrical Engineering, Glasgow G1 1XW, Scotland.

Abstract—Optical techniques for measurement—interfer- Publisher Item Identifier S 1077-260X(00)11502-3.
ometry, spectrometry and polarimetry—have long been used in
materials measurement and environmental evaluation. The
optical fiber lends yet more flexibility in the implementation
of these basic concepts. Fiber-optic technology has, for over 30
years, made important contributions to the science of
measurement.
This paper presents a perspective on these contributions which
while far from exhaustive highlights the important conceptual
advances made in the early days of optical fiber technology and the
breadth of appliaton which has emerged. There are also apparent
opportunities for yet more imaginative research in applying
guided-wave optics to emerging and challenging measurement
requirements ranging from microsystems characterization to
cellular biochemistry to art restoration.
Index Terms—Acoustic measurements, chemical analysis, dis-
placement measurement, gyroscopes, mechanical measurements,
optical fiber measurement applications, optical fiber transducers,
power system measurements, temperature measurements.

I. INTRODUCTION
IBER optics has undoubtedly had a profound impact on

F the communications industry [1]. This can be traced back

to
the seminal papers of Kao and Hockham, and Simon and Spitz
[2], [3], who basically appreciated in the early to mid 1960s that
optical signals could be transmitted along glass or silica fibers
with a loss potentially below that experienced in coaxial copper
cables. Further, unlike copper where skin effect increases loss
with baseband modulation frequency, the loss in optical fibers
could be maintained for all conceivable modulation frequencies.
A little while later, Dyott [4] observed that there were regions of
zero dispersion in the transmission characteristic of silica. The
rest is well-documented history brilliantly encapsulated in
Hecht’s book [1].
But fiber optics was not new in 1965. Glass fibers had already
appeared in ornamental lamps and the basic ideas of the dielec-
tric waveguide were well established. Using optical fibers
to guide light to and from a place at which a measurement was
to be made had already emerged and had gone from concept to
prac- tice. The first patents had been filed on fiber-optic sensing
and had emerged as a tentative product [5] described in the
literature. At around the same time, Eli Snitzer’s ever-
creative intellect was proposing using fiber optics to transmit
phase-modulated

Manuscript received October 9, 2000.

The author is with the University of Strathclyde Department of Electronic
and
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signals [6]—the basis of another important class of fiber-optic
sensors.
So this brief paper will present a predominantly historical
per-
spective on the evolution of research, development, and applica-
tion in fiber-optic sensor technology. From the early beginnings
almost 35 years ago, the optical fiber sensor (OFS) community
became infected with communications euphoria, and by the mid
1970s to the early 1980s felt OFS technology was the solution to
everything. Realism percolated, though perhaps a little slowly,
and now we know that there are areas of real application, but that
there are still interesting and relevant problems left to ex- cite
the research community.
II. SENSOR TECHNOLOGY
Sensing and measurement is a specialized art. Sensor tech-
nologies are applications specific. The thermometer switch
which controls your central heating is totally unsuited to control
a cooling system in your automobile. Sensors all operate in
niche markets. The sensing mechanisms are based on literally
dozens of physical and chemical phenomena interfaced to
electronic signal conditioning through dozens more custom
designed protocols. The industry is consequently highly frag-
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mented—a source simultaneously of frustration, challenge, and
satisfaction to those within it. Fiber-optic sensing is therefore
conceptually orthogonal to fiber-optic communications which
involves very large numbers of essentially the same system
configuration and components. There is very little spin-off
in practice from the communications industry into sensor
technologies. The fiber itself, some guided-wave components,
some, but by no means all, connectors and some, but by
no means all, sources and detectors are the common
elements. Conceiving and realizing the necessary mechanical
and elec- tronic infrastructure around the guided-wave
components is the major portion of optical fiber sensor
technology. In particular, packaging is an immense challenge—
indeed the case with all sensing techniques.
Sensing techniques have another important generic feature.
Virtually all physical and chemical phenomena which are used
in the transduction process are temperature sensitive. Most mea-
surements are not concerned with temperature. Consequently,
most sensing and measurement systems must first of all correct
for temperature variations. This is a perennial issue which has
most certainly marked the process of fiber-optic sensor tech-
nology, producing solutions and approaches with varying de-
grees of elegance and ingenuity.
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Consequently, sensors are never big business, e.g., the

automobile industry is often perceived as the enormous market.
The worldwide volume is about 50 million vehicles per annum.
None of the mass market sensors in automobiles is worth more
than a few dollars and there are numerous different suppliers
worldwide. Consequently, even in the automobile industry,
small companies or small sub divisions of major corporations
provide the sensors. There is no homogenous multibillion dollar
market for anything in sensing and measurement technology.
Fig. 1. Basic functions of the optical fiber sensor.
If we examine fiber sensors specifically, the niches are cur-
rently very narrow, so the few companies which are operating in
this domain, while profitable and interesting, employ typically
10–100 people. They are also patient. Above all else, sensors
have to work, often in difficult environments ranging from the
physical extremes of aerospace to the chemical extremes of bio-
medicine or process technologies. Sensors take time. A decade
from concept to product is normal. Precision gyroscopes, for ex-
ample, can take twice this!

III. FIBER SENSOR TECHNIQUES: THE BASICS

The fiber sensor is illustrated diagrammatically in Fig. 1. The
basic components are simple. Light is taken to a modulation re-
gion using an optical fiber and modulated therein by a physical,
chemical, or biological phenomena, and the modulated light
is transmitted back to a receiver, detected, and demodulated.
Hopefully, there is a one-to-one correlation between the phe-
nomenon of interest and the demodulated signal.
There are two substantial issues in realizing a viable optical
fiber sensor technology:
1) to ensure the one-to-one relationship between the pa-
rameter to be measured and the demodulated signal;
2) to match the technology to the application in terms of
both performance and cost.
The first of these is the simpler one despite the fact that the
impact of the fibers to and from the modulation region, varia-
tions in source and detector characteristics with temperature and
time and the influence of temperature on the modulation process
are all important. The second of these must recognize the pres-
ence of established techniques and in particular must identify
otherwise insoluble problems which are important but for tech-
nical reasons have not been satisfactorily resolved. There are
sufficient examples of such problems to continue to stimulate
the fiber-optic sensor community [7], [29]–[31].1
IV. THE FOTONIC SENSOR: INTENSITY MODULATED SYSTEMS
The Fotonic sensor is described exhaustively in [5] and was
patented somewhat earlier. It is based (Fig. 2) on bifurcated fiber
bundles.
1Optical fiber sensing is unique in sensor technologies in continuing to
present its own series of conferences. Of these, the most important is probably
the international conference on optical fiber sensors series, starting in 1983
in London. The first twelve proceedings are available on CD ROM from
SPIE, Bellingham, WA. Volume 13 is SPIE volume 3746; volume 14 will be
presented in Venice, Italy, in October 2000 (SPIE Vol. 4185). There are also
series on chemical sensing (Europtrode)—various publishers, and chemical
and environmental sensing. (SPIE volumes 4200 and 4205, to be presented in
Boston, MA, November 2000, and volumes 4199 and 4201, also Boston, 2000,
are the most recent in the series.)
Fig. 2. “Fotonic” sensor measuring the position of a reflector relative to a fiber
(bundle) end.
The basic concept is simple. The fraction of light transmitted
between the receive elements in the bundle and the transmit el-
ements in the bundles depends on the separation between the
reflector and the bundle itself and is, to a first approximation,
independent of small rotational angles of the target object, par-
ticularly for the high numerical aperture fibers uniformly illumi-
nated with light from an incandescent bulb for which the sensor
was originally conceived.
Of course, if the reflectivity of the target changes, then the
transmission ratio changes. However, the inventors had foreseen
this eventuality and designed compensation schemes to over-
come the problem. These involved use of two receiving bundles,
one a known distance from the other. The ratio of received light
in these receiving bundles is then a unique function of the dis-
tance between the end of the bundle and the target.
The Fotonic sensor has had some modest success in real ap-
plications as a proximity measuring system. It was capable of
resolutions in the micrometer range, made no physical contact
with the target, and had the usual optical advantages concerned
with the electromagnetic interference and pickup.
This basic sensor has been reinvented in numerous formats
with some regularity ever since. The fiber bundle concept has
been replaced by the use of individual fibers and the light source
has been increased in intensity by using light-emitting diodes
and superradiant systems. There have been slight modifications
to the intensity fluctuation compensation scheme. Sometimes
separate transmit and receive fiber locations have been used.
The application context has been changed. The idea has been
demonstrated for monitoring machine tool wear, for looking at
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Fig. 3. Dual-beam all-fiber interferometers used in sensing—normally the interferometer is biased, dynamically or stastically, to the quadrature
optimum sensitivity point X.
blade clearances in gas turbine engines, for measuring angular
rotation instead of longitudinal displacement, and to monitor
the displacement of pressure diaphragms in pressure sensors for
automotive and medical applications.
The Fotonic sensor exemplifies much of optical fiber sensor
technology. It was conceived and demonstrated 35 years ago. It
has been frequently reinvented. It has occasionally been used in
earnest in applications which were not dreamed of when the idea
was originally put forward. It uses simple intensity modulation
and it has within it the capability if needed for referencing to
remove the impact of fluctuations in reflectivity, fiber loss, and
source output.
And finally, temperature sensitivity is inherent within the me-
chanics of the reflector mounting and movement rather than the
optical system itself.
V. USING PHASE: HYDROPHONES AND GYROSCOPES
Interferometry is one of the favored tools of optics and most
of the many versions of interferometry have been incorporated
into optical fiber sensor technology. The Fotonic sensor, based
as it was on a very simple concept, never really entered the op-
tical literature. It was more than a decade later that optical fiber
sensors became a subject of optics when the dependence of the
phase delay through single-mode fiber on temperature, pressure,
and strain became apparent [8], [9]—though the existence of this
phase dependence had already been noted by Snitzer [6] in a
different context.
Around the same time [10], [11], the new dimension which
optical fibers could give to the Sagnac effect became apparent
and the fiber-optic gyroscope was conceived and demonstrated.
Demonstrating the concept is the simple but exciting phase.
A multiplicity of sensor architectures—most notably fiber-optic
Mach–Zehnder, fiber-optic Michelson, and fiber-optic Sagnac
interferometers were evaluated, calibrated, and tested. The
very basic sensitivities were assessed. The phase delay in an
optical fiber changes by approximately 1 ppm per longitudinal
microstrain, 1 ppm per hydrostatic bar of environmental
pressure change, and 10 ppm per C change in temperature.
The influence of laser source noise on interferometer per-
formance rapidly became apparent, and Mach–Zehnder or
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Michelson configurations were designed for as near as possible
zero-path-length difference between the arms to avoid phase
noise to amplitude noise conversion. Some heterodyne inter-
ferometer detection systems were assessed, and while these
were in some ways simpler, they have now been almost totally
abandoned. The simplicity arises from the fact that quadrature
operation need no longer be maintained (Fig. 3).
The optical fiber interferometer was hailed as among the most
sensitive and versatile of sensor technologies. Its sensitivity can
be increased simply by adding more fiber until the losses within
the fiber begin to exceed the additional signal. It is straightfor-
ward to show that this occurs when the total optical fiber length
is the inverse of the attenuation in nepers per unit length. Typi-
cally, many kilometers of the fiber can, if needed, be used.
Additionally, the optical fiber can be wound in numerous
shapes and sizes which in turn can determine the overall
re- sponse of the sensor to a physical parameter field.
Furthermore, the transmission path is immune to
electromagnetic interfer- ence, is very light in weight, and is
chemically and physically compatible with a wide variety of host
materials. The interfer- ometer remains the most utilized fiber-
optic sensor technology with a particular presence in
gyroscopes, hydrophones, and strain-sensing applications.
VI. DISTRIBUTED SENSING
The interferometer measures the change in the end-to-end
path length along the fiber configured to interact with the phys-
ical parameter field. However, there are a multiplicity of ways
in which light may interact with the external world around it, and
some of these can be configured to enable a probe to be devel-
oped which reveals a parameter field as a function of position
along the fiber length. Distributed sensing (Fig. 4) is a technique
which is unique (or almost so) to fiber-optic technologies. While
there are a very few electrical cables which can be configured to
be read through a time-domain reflectometer, none has the
ruggedness, flexibility, and accuracy of the fiber-optic model.
Distributed sensing relies upon backscatter and on modu-
lating the backscattered radiation produced by a forward-trav-
elling optical beam to reveal typically a temperature or strain
field. Three major backscattering processes have been used.
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Fig. 4. Generic distributed sensing concept using elastically (linear) or
inelastically (nonlinear) backscattered light as the information carrier.
Rayleigh backscatter produces the highest signal of the three, but
its returned intensity is simply a representation of the inten- sity
which arrived at the scattering point. It follows then that
Rayleigh backscattering systems must modulate this intensity
through some secondary mechanism. Brillouin scatter produces
an offset frequency spectrum related directly to the acoustic
phonon spectrum in the fiber. This in turn can be stimulated
by the illuminating optical beam, so a measure of the offset
spectrum effectively produces a frequency dependent upon the
acoustic velocity in the optical fiber and the wavelength of
the illuminating source. Assuming the latter gives the former,
which in turn depends upon temperature and strain. Raman
scatter probes the optical phonon spectrum and this in turn can
give a unique measure of the temperature at the scattering point
(the volumes in [7], [29]–[31] present a detailed description of
these interaction mechanisms).
The basic idea of distributed sensing was appreciated in the
late 1970s [12] and the first mention of the Raman distributed
temperature probe came rapidly thereafter [13]. The possibili-
ties for Brillouin became apparent a decade or so later [14], by
which stage the first commercial Raman temperature probes had
begun to appear.
Distributed sensing remains one of the most powerful tools
offered by fiber-optic sensor technology. It enables unique
measurements which cannot be undertaken using competitive
technologies. However, an optical time domain reflectometer
(OTDR) reconfigured to detect time varying Brillouin or Raman
spectra is a complex specialized and therefore expensive piece
of equipment, but despite this very significant parameter,
distributed sensing has found its niches.
VII. MULTIPLEXED SYSTEMS
Optical systems have, at the typical power levels involved in
optical fiber transmission, very useful signal-to-noise ratio po-
tential within the very modest bandwidths demanded by sensing
applications. Additionally, if the receiver power is within the
shot noise limit, the signal-to-noise ratio only decreases as the
square root of the power. These simple observations rapidly
pointed toward the concept of dividing this power among an
array of sensors and the ideas of multiplexing sensor arrays
have been with us for some considerable time [15]. The sensors
can be strung together in a multiplicity of architectures based
upon ladders, stars, and combinations thereof. Of these, the star
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(a)
(b)
(c)
Fig. 5. Some star-based optical fiber sensor multiplexor architectures. (a)
The most power efficient, but mechanical switches are slow and expensive. (b)
Feasible but inefficient in its use of optical power. (c) Simple to implement and
has demonstrated large multiplexing capability ([16]).
(Fig. 5) is, for individual sensor elements, the most simple to im-
plement, since equal power division is relatively easy to arrange.
Multiplexing also features strongly in Bragg grating technology
(see below). However, even with relatively lossy sensors—for
example gas cells—up to 128 elements can be usefully config-
ured into a single array, fed from a single optical system [16].
VIII. PHYSICAL SENSING: MODULATING LIGHT OUTSIDE THE
FIBER
The Fotonic sensor which started the process was based upon
what now would be termed an extrinsic modulation scheme—in
other words, the fiber is used to link the optical signal to the
sensing point. In addition to the many variations on the basic
Fotonic sensor, where the signal clearly depends upon attenua-
tion, a number of other architectures have been investigated and
some exploited using attenuation independent modulation onto
the optical carrier.
Three basic approaches have been examined:
1) color modulation, for example, using spectral slicing
of the radiation from a light-emitting diode;
2) interferometric measurements of the distance
between the end of the optical fiber and the reflective
surface;
3) configuring the parameter to be measured into a mod-
ulation scheme, which introduces an amplitude modula-
tion at a frequency dependent upon the measurand.
The basic principles of these approaches are illustrated in
Fig. 6, and again the initial demonstrations of these principles
date back to the period between 1975 and 1985 [17]–[19]. Dig-
ital shaft encoding or longitudinal displacement measurement
operating on a spectral slicing principle proved to be robust and
capable of up to 12-bit accuracy. Mechanical resonators—varia-
tions on the vibrating wire gauge—are well established as preci-
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sion measurement concepts. The principle is simple. A mechan-

ical strain applied along the axis of the wire changes the reso-
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(a) The photorefractive effect in optical fibers was first reported

during the same very productive era in the mid 1970s
[21].

(b)

(c)
Fig. 6. Three intensity insensitive modulation schemes for optical fiber
sensors. (a) Spectral slicing. (b) Interferometric filtering. (c) Amplitude
modulation at a measurand-dependant resonant frequency.

nant frequency and through measuring this frequency, the strain

may be inferred with the usual proviso concerning tempera-
ture sensitivity. The optical fiber versions of these resonators use
thermo-optic excitation and with careful design can operate
through fiber links several kilometers in length. The mechan-
ical engineering of the sensor head is demanding but these sen-
sors have now found their place in very demanding applications,
notably the measurement of pressure “down hole” in oil wells.
Interferometric measurement systems for diaphragm displace-
ment have been based upon both using the space between the
diaphragm and the fiber end as a Fabry–Perot cavity and mea-
suring the spectral transmission characteristic, and on exploiting
white-light interferometry to replicate the displacement of the
diaphragm within the receiver. In white-light interferometry, an
incoherent source is used to illuminate the measurement inter-
ferometer and fringes are detected at the receiver only when the
path difference of a reference interferometer exactly matches
that of the measurement. The first demonstration of this prin-
ciple [20] highlighted the potential precision with which this
measurement could be made in sensing, and subsequently the
basic principle has been extensively exploited.

IX. FIBER BRAGG GRATING

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(a)

(b)
Fig. 7. Bragg grating geometry and functions. The reflected spectrum closely
approximates to the Fourier transform of the grating. (a) Short broadband
reflector/mode coupler. (b) Long narrowband wavelength selective coupler
functions performed by fiber Bragg gratings.

The photorefractive effect can be used to make periodic struc-

tures along the core in optical fiber, and these periodic struc-
tures (Fig. 7) act as highly selective optical filters. The reflec-
tion wavelength depends on the period of the grating, which in
turn could be modified through temperature and phase excur-
sions which change the optical path length within the grating
structure. Fiber Bragg gratings is an extensive subject predom-
inantly with applications in the communications area for ele-
ments such as wavelength tuning and stabilization structures
and optical filters. Initially, the gratings were written by sending
counter-propagating beams along the fiber, and it was a decade
or thereabouts later that side illumination techniques using ul-
traviolet lasers introduced the necessary flexibility in defining
the periodic structure [22].
In the sensor context, fiber Bragg gratings can be written se-
quentially at predetermined points along a single fiber and can
also be made to reflect light in different wavelength bands. Con-
sequently, a linear array of, say, 16 gratings can provide 16 sepa-
rate sensing points, each individually identified through a spec-
tral slicing technique. Precision measurement of wavelength in
the reflected spectrum, usually involving a stabilized reference,
can then yield the period of each grating. This periodicity is de-
pendent on the optical path length and gives an indication of the
combined temperature/strain fields. In a constant tempera- ture
(or temperature compensated) environment, the linear array of
Bragg gratings can act as a multiplexed strain gauge array. This
is, though, a somewhat special array. It is extremely com- pact,
does not need individual wires to connect to each strain
measuring point, and can be attached to or embedded within
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Fig. 8. All fiber current monitor and crystalline current (magnetic field) or voltage (electric field) fiber sensor architecture.
a wide variety of host materials. Bragg gratings have been ex-
tensively researched with the last decade or so as strain gauge
elements and now are probably the most published fiber sensor
technology.
X. MEASURING ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS
Faraday rotation (the dependence of circular birefringence
on magnetic fields) and the electrooptic effect (dependence
of—usually—linear birefringence on applied electric fields) are
well-known phenomena in the world of optical physics. With the
advent of optical fiber transmission, it was natural then that the
fiber should be used to link an optical signal to a suitable
crystalline material to measure electromagnetic fields. The
great benefit of the fiber link lies potentially in sensing at high
voltage, since current transformers are expensive, unwieldy,
and have very limited frequency response. It seems that fiber
optics could provide an insulating link to high-voltage areas
and make the measurement using a very broadband detector
with a rapid response interaction mechanism. Additionally, the
Faraday effect occurs in all materials, particular the silica
of the optical fiber, so perhaps looping the optical fiber along the
magnetic field (Fig. 8) could also produce Faraday rotation.
Measuring electromagnetic fields has developed into an im-
portant niche for fiber-optic sensing and again the evolution
follows the now familiar pattern. The original references date
back more than 20 years [23], [24] with subsequent engineering
and refinement dealing with the practicalities of vibration sen-
sitivity, temperature sensitivity, and packaging to protect from
environmental interference.
XI. CHEMISTRY AND BIOMEDICINE : OPTRODES
Color and chemistry are inherently compatible. Materials are
frequently characterized through their absorption spectra, much
of which lies in the optical region, and visual indicators exem-
plified by litmus paper are well-characterized means of interro-
gating materials, especially liquids, for their content.
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Fig. 9. Basic optrode which features in many, perhaps most, optical
fiber chemical sensor architectures.
Optical fibers have a natural part to play and their poten-
tial for chemical and biochemical measurements became rec-
ognized within the same familiar timescale [25], [26]. The term
“optrode” (Fig. 9) emerged later to describe a device which uses
color-sensitive intermediate chemistry to monitor the almost in-
variably liquid immediate surroundings. In optrode-based de-
vices, the optics is usually very simple, and updated versions of
the filter wheel first described in [25] are still used (though
typically using two colors of LED). Most of the progress in op-
trode-based devices lies in the complex area of immobilization
chemistry and in protective packaging especially for use in bi-
ological systems. Applications ranging from monitoring of bile
in the digestive tract to blood oxygen and blood pH to pollutant
monitoring in water supplies have now all been realized. For
biomedical sensing, the usual approach is to incorporate a dis-
posal sensing head, though for water supply measurement sys-
tems, long-term stability of the sensor chemistry remains prob-
lematic.
The intermediate chemistry in optrodes has the benefit that the
sensor can be made highly specific to a particular species and
the signal from that species can be made to occur within a
wavelength range compatible with optical fiber technology.
Stability in packaging remains an issue, and more direct mea-
surement systems eliminating the intermediate chemistry are
in principle more attractive. Direct spectroscopy therefore has
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an important role to play in optical fiber chemical measure-
ment, though this emerged as a potentially viable technique a
decade or so later than the optrode was first mooted [27]. Gas
spectroscopy remains the most interesting potential application
though the strongest absorption lines for most species of interest
lie outside the transmission window of optical fiber waveguides.
There are, however, frequently overtones in the near infrared,
and these have been used with some success in the detection of
methane, acetylene, hydrogen sulphide, and several other
species [28]. Once more, while there are niche applications, the
peculiar properties of optical systems must be recognized. In this
context, the very specific wavelengths required to address the
absorption bands are invariably outside the communications
spectrum, so optical sources with the appropriate power level
and spectral purity remain relatively special items and are there-
fore expensive. However, a sufficiently large array of sensors
can make a system cost competitive, and its selectivity com-
pared to electrical pellistor technology (which simply detects
flammable gases) can be beneficial. The low attenuation of op-
tical fibers also facilitates measurements over a very wide area
inaccessible to more established approaches.
XII. USING OPTICAL FIBERS SENSORS: THE APPLICATIONS
Sensing and measurement are idiosyncratic niche-oriented
activities, and the thought that optical fiber sensing can solve all
measurement problems has long since disappeared.
Numerous niches have emerged.2 These range from moni-
toring pressure transients in diesel engines, to using white-light
interferometry to measure strain in long-gauge-length (to 50 m)
sensors for civil engineering, to intravenous pressure sensing, to
landfill monitoring for combustible gases.
The Bragg grating strain gauge is arguably the most fre-
quently quoted example in the literature, finding applications to
measure strain and/or temperature in bridges, in com- posite
materials for marine and aerospace engineering and in down-
hole pressure and temperature monitoring. Numerous
experimental systems based on Bragg grating technology have
been demonstrated, and while these do illustrate the principles,
the grating does remain very expensive equivalent to a strain
gauge and true commercial activity remains sparse.
In contrast, the fiber-optic gyroscope is now a modestly
high-volume production subsystem. The gyroscope first
appeared in commercial aircraft when the Boeing 777 was
introduced, where it was used as an aid to vehicle stabilization.
It has also been used in automobiles as a navigation aid,
in missiles and munitions for guidance systems, and even in pro-
totype remotely powered lawnmowers for ultrastraight stripes on
football pitches. The hydrophone too has begun to make its mark
where Mach–Zehnder interferometer configuration can be
made more sensitive with better directional control and in more
flexible packaging configurations than the piezoceramic
equivalent.
Distributed sensing also has identified some of its niches. Dis-
tributed Raman backscatter has found a place in the Channel
2The European fiber optic sensor network FOS-EN list many producers of
optical fiber sensors on its web site. [Online.] Available: http://www.fbre.fos-
en.net.
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Tunnel as a fire-alarm system, in large process ovens for mon-
itoring temperature profiles, and in numerous other very spe-
cialized applications where temperature field measurements are
important. Brillouin scatter too has been used to measure tem-
perature, watching the concrete set in a major dam project in
Switzerland. It has also been used in earnest to measure strain
paradoxically in telecommunication cables especially in regions
where landslip could cause local stresses which could compro-
mise cable integrity. The Brillouin system also shows promise
in the oil industry to monitor the integrity of safety-critical and
very expensive anchors and tethers.
To attempt an exhaustive list of applications is impractical as
well as uninformative. The general observation that the princi-
ples first elucidated a quarter of a century ago are now emerging
in practice can be applied for many of the techniques which have
been briefly mentioned herein. Additionally, every application
is manifestly unique and requires quite specific engineering to
translate the concept into reality. Fiber sensing has emerged as a
true parallel to everything else in the sensing and measurement
industry with relatively small and specialized market opportu-
nities each with its own specific challenges.
XIII. WHAT OF THE FUTURE
Guided-wave optics, particularly fiber systems, continue to
offer unique possibilities in a measurement context. Where this
will lead depends particularly on the initiatives of the research
community. There remains considerable activity in chemical
sensing with distributed measurement as one of many major
interests. Tapered fibers have emerged as means to monitor
intracellular chemistry with significantly submicron resolution.
The same resolution too could be applied to measuring material
properties in microengineered structures, though these have yet
to be demonstrated. There are also prospects for the very large
and gravitational telescopes, based on an enormous Sagnac
interferometer, have been proposed though their realization is
probably unlikely.
So most of the work in fiber-optic sensors is now focused on
developmental opportunities emerging from the very productive
era from the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s. But the more specu-
lative research will continue, and at least some will lead into
demanding, exotic, innovative measurements.
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Brian Culshaw (M’83) was born in Ormskirk, Lan-
cashire, U.K., on September 24, 1945. He graduated
with the B.Sc. degree in physics in 1966 and the Ph.D.
degree in electrical engineering in 1970, both from
University College London, London, U.K.
He joined Strathclyde University,
Glasgow, Scotland, as Professor of Electronics in
September
1983. He was formerly Vice Dean of the Engi-
neering Faculty at Strathclyde and is currently
Head of the Department of Electronic and Electrical
Engineering. He had previous appointments as a
Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, Technical Staff Member
at Bell Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada, Lecturer and later Reader,
University College London, and Senior Research Associate, Applied Physics
Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, CA. He worked on microwave
and semiconductor devices and their design and technology until 1975, when his
interests evolved into guided-wave optics with particular applications in
sensing, signal processing, and instrumentation. His interests include optical
fiber gyroscopes, hydrophones, accelerometers, temperature probes, strain and
pressure measurement, sensors, and a host of other measurement systems, also
venturing into signal processing architectures, micromachining techniques,
and high-speed network design. It was from this background that his interest in
smart structures evolved through the appreciation that guided-wave optics could
make a significant contribution to structural instrumentation. Subsequently, he
has become involved in a number of projects on smart structures, especially in
composite materials and civil engineering. He has written extensively on
microwave semiconductors, fiber optics, and smart structures and materials,
having authored or co-authored over 300 papers and seven textbooks. He has
chaired major international conferences in these areas and also acts as a topical
editor for Applied Optics (Optical Society of America). He is a director
of SPIE and a founding director of OptoSci Ltd., a campus spin-out
company specializing in optoelectronic instrumentation.