Design of special fibres for sensors

Abstract

New Fibres: Optical fibres have been developed to a high degree of sophistication for applications in long-distance transmission. Silica-based fibres have attenuations close to the theoretical minimum at wavelengths of 0.85μm, 1.3μm and 1.55μm, while the bandwidth of single-mode fibres can, for all practical purposes, be made almost infinite at wavelengths greater than 1.3μm. Attention is now being given to the design of new types of fibre for application as sensors in control and process engineering.

At Southampton we have fabricated fibres with zero birefringence, strong linear birefringence and strong circular birefringence. Secondly we have made fibres with longitudinal metal components close to the core to produce electrically-activated modulation and switching. Thirdly, a technique has been developed for doping the core of single-mode fibres with rare-earth and transition-metal materials through an extension of the MCVD technique.

IEE Colloquium The Application of Fibre Optics in Control and Process Engineering London Mar (1987) pp.1/1-1/4

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