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Luminescent optical fibers in sensing

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Optical Fiber Sensor Technology

Part of the book series: Optoelectronics, Imaging and Sensing ((OISS,volume 4))

Abstract

The development of fibers doped with materials through which luminescence is generated has a long history, which follows upon the original proposal by Snitzer [1] in the early 1960s of the use of an optical fiber geometry for lasers and optical amplification, employing 300 μm core diameter neodymium doped fiber. Subsequent development of this concept has been the major reason for the production of a range of different types of optical fiber, doped with appropriate materials to show fluorescence. Only ions that belong to the lanthanide group of rare earths have been observed to allow laser oscillation in a fiber geometry, as these ions possess a number of distinct features which make them attractive for use as a laser medium. These benefits apply equally (but under less rigorous conditions) to their use as fluorescent sources where the need to generate stimulated emission is not present, and so strong, noncoherent fluorescent light arising from spontaneous emission is the primary output. The fiber geometry, however, provides a very useful constraint on the propagation of the light beam, and so an intense directional emission can be achieved from a fluorescing fiber when monitoring the light emerging at either end. The discussion of the use of luminescent fibers in sensing in this chapter excludes the considerable use of optical fiber in lasers and amplifiers, either as sources for optical sensing or for other purposes, such as optical communications and in optical fiber laser sensors themselves. Both these topics have been discussed in some detail, the former by Langford [2] and the latter by Kim [3]. Further, the use of other luminescent phenomena such as are produced by nonlinear effects, typically Raman and Brillouin scattering, are also not discussed in this section, as again they have been considered extensively elsewhere, for example in the work of Grattan and Zhang [4] and Rogers [5].

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Authors
  1. K. T. V. Grattan
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  2. Z. Y. Zhang
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  3. T. Sun
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical, Electronic & Information Engineering, City University, Northampton Square, EC1V 0HB, London, UK

    K. T. V. Grattan

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© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Grattan, K.T.V., Zhang, Z.Y., Sun, T. (1998). Luminescent optical fibers in sensing. In: Grattan, K.T.V., Meggitt, B.T. (eds) Optical Fiber Sensor Technology. Optoelectronics, Imaging and Sensing, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2484-5_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2484-5_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-4031-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-2484-5

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