Sensors (Mar 2021)

Optical Sensing Using Fiber-Optic Multimode Interference Devices: A Review of Nonconventional Sensing Schemes

  • José Rafael Guzmán-Sepúlveda,
  • Rafael Guzmán-Cabrera,
  • Arturo Alberto Castillo-Guzmán

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/s21051862
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 21, no. 5
p. 1862

Abstract

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We review fiber-based multimode interference (MMI) devices with a particular focus on optical fiber-based sensing applications. The present review complements a recently published, extensive review where the sensing of conventional physical variables such as refractive index, temperature, displacement, and strain was covered. This review focuses on MMI fiber sensors for nonconventional physical variables, including mechanical, electromagnetic, chemical, and optical, covering around fifteen years of work in the field. Finally, by the end of this paper, we also review some new trends of MMI-based schemes based on polymer fibers, for wavelength-locking applications, for retrieving the thermo-optic coefficient of liquid samples, and for measuring the dynamics of complex fluids.

Keywords