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Optical fiber biochemical sensing technology, as a cutting‐edge, multidisciplinary, and universal sensing technology, is gradually becoming the research focus in the field of biochemical sensing. They enjoy distinctive characteristics such as high cost‐effectiveness, flexibility, resistance to electromagnetic interference, and small size and can be used to detect biochemical analytes at ultra‐low concentrations with ultra‐low sample consumption, even when these biochemical analytes are in hard‐to‐reach environments. An aptamer is a DNA or RNA oligonucleotide fragment with a high affinity for the target selected from random sequences. Due to their advantages of simple synthesis, low cost, good stability, good specificity, and strong affinity, they are gradually becoming ideal recognition elements and may replace antibodies as next‐generation target receptors. Therefore, aptamers, as functional materials, are integrated into optical fiber sensors, which are called optical fiber aptasensors, providing new opportunities for the construction of high‐performance and intelligent biochemical sensors. This article aims to review the recent research progress of fiber‐optic aptamer biochemical sensors, with a focus on their sensing mechanisms and applications. Finally, based on the existing deficiencies of fiber‐optic aptamer biochemical sensors and practical requirements, their future development trends are briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For low fineness extrinsic Fabry-Perot inter-ferometer (EFPI) sensors, the discrete gap transform (DGT) algorithm can be usually adopted to acquire the cavity length, and the magnitude of its demodulation error is often larger than several hundred picometer. In this paper, three-parameter cosine fitting (TPCF) method is proposed to compensate for the EFPI cavity length error caused by traditional spectrum truncation, which can improve the demodulation accuracy by 3800 times of that of DGT. This method has a large cavity length demodulation range of 20 μm ∼30000 μm with a maximum error of 65 pm, which was proved by numerical simulation. The experiment shows that when the cavity length is 31 μm and 282.3 μm, the demodulation resolutions with a confidence interval of 68.27% are 15.142 pm and 27.582 pm, respectively, and its actual demodulation time is no more than 0.021 s. Compared with the traditional cavity length demodulation algorithms, the proposed algorithm has broader demodulation range, higher demodulation accuracy and resolution. Moreover, it will be unrestricted by wavelength shift for more than one period and can realize real-time fast demodulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel platform for simultaneous measurement of relative humidity (RH) and temperature using dual Fabry–Perot interferometers (FPIs) based on C-shaped fiber was demonstrated. The sensor was composed by splicing two sections of C-shaped fiber between single mode fiber (SMF). Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) are filled in the two sections of C-shaped fibers to increase sensitivity to temperature and RH. This is the first demonstration that solid polymer materials can be added to the C-shaped fiber interferometers for sensing. In our experiment, RH sensitivities of -0.128 nm/%RH and 0.038 nm/%RH in the range of 20%RH to 45%RH, and temperature sensitivities of 0.022 nm/°C and -0.722 nm/°C in the temperature range of 15 °C to 45°C, were acquired for dual FPIs, respectively. We verified that it is possible to use the sensitivity matrix method to measure two parameters simultaneously. In addition, it has the benefits of simple structure, excellent stability and high sensitivity, and has a broad application prospect in agriculture, food processing and environmental measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fiber-optic pH sensor, based on layer-by-layer (LBL) self-assembly and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technology, is proposed and experimentally confirmed. This article proposes poly (diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA) as the pretreatment solution for the surface of the gold film and the highly sensitive polyacrylic acid/chitosan (PAA/CS) self-assembled nanomembrane as the pH-sensitive film. It has been experimentally verified that the sensor can detect pH from 3.18 to 11.84 and it exhibits a high average sensitivity of 32.31 nm/pH in this range. In addition, experiments have confirmed that the sensor has attractive stability, repeatability, and hysteresis characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optofluidic, as an emerging technology that combines photons and microfluidics, has become a powerful, intelligent, and universal sensing platform in the field of bio‐chemical sensing. Optical fiber optofluidic (OFOF), as a branch of optofluidic technology, has stimulated a host of remarkable achievements in the field of bio‐chemical sensing due to its superiority of compact structure, immunity to electromagnetic interference, low sample consumption, high sensitivity, and real‐time dynamic response. In this paper, an overview of OFOF bio‐chemical sensors is presented. The OFOF system architectures are introduced and some advanced functional materials and coating technologies that can be utilized in the OFOF sensing platform to achieve high‐performance biochemical sensing are summarized. Research progress and current status of OFOF bio‐chemical sensors based on various sensing mechanisms are summarized and analyzed, with emphases on their sensing principles, sensing structures, sensing applications, advantages, and disadvantages. Lastly, the existing challenges and future development trends of OFOF biochemical sensors are briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A reflective optical fiber nickel ion (Ni2+) sensor based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and surface ion imprinting was proposed and demonstrated. The sensor is made of multimode optical fiber with a core diameter of 600 $\mu \text{m}$ and coated with a gold film for an exciting SPR effect. To realize highly sensitive and highly selective detection of Ni2+, graphene oxide (GO) and Ni2+-imprinted Chitosan (IP-CS) are subsequently combined on the sensor surface. The GO can not only act as the intermediate binder between the Au film and the CS but also increase the sensitivity of the sensor. The Ni2+ holes on the IP-CS can realize the specific capture of Ni2+. The experimental results show that the sensitivity of the sensor to Ni2+ is 5.220 nm/[lg(mg/L)] with a limit of detection of $2.393\times 10^{-3}$ mg/L, and the selectivity of the sensor is significantly improved after imprinting. Besides, the sensor has good stability and repeatability, and fast responsiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new type of two-channel surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor based on hollow-core fiber (HCF) for simultaneous measurement of seawater salinity and temperature was presented in this article. One of the SPR channels that are excited on the outer surface of the HCF with Au film coating was used to measure the seawater salinity, while another SPR channel that is excited on the inner surface of the HCF with Ag film coating and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) infiltration was used for seawater temperature measurement at the same time. The experimental results showed that the salinity sensitivity and temperature sensitivity of the sensor could reach 0.3769 nm/‰ and −0.956 nm/°C, respectively. This demonstrated that the two-channel SPR sensor not only showed the possibility in the simultaneous measurement of two parameters with high sensitivity, excellent stability, small size, and high mechanical strength but also shed new light on the multiparameter measurement fields and the development of lab-in-fiber sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new type of two-channel surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor based on hollow-core fiber (HCF) for simultaneous measurement of seawater salinity and temperature was presented in this article. One of the SPR channels that are excited on the outer surface of the HCF with Au film coating was used to measure the seawater salinity, while another SPR channel that is excited on the inner surface of the HCF with Ag film coating and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) infiltration was used for seawater temperature measurement at the same time. The experimental results showed that the salinity sensitivity and temperature sensitivity of the sensor could reach 0.3769 nm/‰ and −0.956 nm/°C, respectively. This demonstrated that the two-channel SPR sensor not only showed the possibility in the simultaneous measurement of two parameters with high sensitivity, excellent stability, small size, and high mechanical strength but also shed new light on the multiparameter measurement fields and the development of lab-in-fiber sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A refractive index (RI) fiber sensor with low detection limit but large dynamic range is proposed and demonstrated using an exposed core microstructured optical fiber. The exposed-core fiber is highly birefringent due to its asymmetry and also supports multimode propagation; thus, can be used simultaneously as a Mach-Zehnder and Sagnac interferometer. The Mach-Zehnder interference is significantly more phase sensitive to RI due to a longer effective path length difference. This leads to a lower detection limit compared to that for the Sagnac interferometer, which has a larger free spectral range that allows the dynamic range of the RI measurement to be extended. By combining these two interferometers, the proposed sensor achieves a detection limit of as low as 6.02 × 10−6 refractive index units (RIU) while maintaining a large dynamic range from 1.3320 to 1.3465 RIU. The proposed sensor also has the advantages of biocompatibility, low cost, high stability, small size, ability to operate remotely and to be fabricated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel hot wire fiber anemometer was proposed based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect in a dual-defect hole photonic crystal fiber (PCF), and the flow rate sensing characters of high sensitivity, wide measurement range, and strain compensation were proved by the numerical analysis. A gold film was selected as the plasmonic material to stimulate SPR, and diethylene glycol was considered as temperature-sensitive material. By theoretical and simulation analyses, the relationship between flow rate and ambient temperature was discussed, and the variations of structural parameters in the PCF were analyzed along with the changes of temperature and strain. Through further simulation research, the temperature sensitivity of the proposed SPR sensor was calculated as 6.83 nm/°C. Besides, the simulated flow rate sensitivity and resolution were improved to 32.19 nm/(m/s) and $6.21\times 10^{-4}$ m/s, respectively, when the flow rate was around 1 m/s and laser power was 100 mW. The maximum detectable flow rate could be up to 23.4 m/s when the resolutions of flow rate and wavelength were 0.3 m/s and 0.02 nm, respectively. Finally, the cross-sensitivity problem between flow rate and strain could be theoretically solved by detecting the wavelengths of dual SPR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A composite optical fiber sensor based on an in-line Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) with fiber Bragg grating was proposed. The MZI was fabricated by two standard single-mode fibers and one section of photonic crystal fiber. And the sensing region was coated on hydrogel to measure pH and temperature. When the pH around the sensor changes, the swelling (shrinking) of the hydrogel results in the variations of the refractive index, which causes variations in the transmission spectrum. Due to resonance wavelengths of the two structures that experience different responses to the ambient pH and the temperature, these parameters can be measured simultaneously. The experimental sensor can indicate the pH change at the wide measurement range (2–12), and the pH and temperature sensitivities are −0.27 nm/pH and 0.088 nm/°C, respectively. Because of the wide pH measurement range and excellent stability, the proposed sensor has a broad application of the biochemistry measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simultaneous measurement of hydrogen concentration and temperature with high sensitivity and high precision was realized by integrating a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) modal interferometer and a high-birefringence fiber loop mirror (HBFLM). The PCF was coated with sol-gel Pd/WO3 coating, whose refractive index and volume would be changed along with the variation of surrounding hydrogen concentration or temperature, and then the resonant dip of PCF modal interferometer would shift accordingly. Meanwhile, the resonant dip of the HBFLM has a high sensitivity to surrounding temperature. By integrating PCF modal interferometer and HBFLM together, the two independent resonant dips that can be simultaneously monitored at the output spectrum of the integrated interferometers would all shift with the change of external hydrogen concentration or temperature. Finally, combined with the dual-wavelength matrix method, the hydrogen concentration and temperature could be simultaneously measured. Experimental results showed that the resonant dip of the PCF modal interferometer moved in the short wavelength direction with the increase of hydrogen concentration, and the sensitivity of the hydrogen concentration was −1.12 nm/% within the concentration range from 0% to 1%. In the process of temperature change, the HBFLM realized a higher temperature sensitivity of −1.84 nm/°C. The sensor had high sensitivity, low cost, and simple structure. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Ferrofluid is a novel kind of functional materials, which possesses both the magnetism of solid magnetic material and fluidity of liquid material. Due to its unique optical properties, especially the refractive index tunability under magnetic field, ferrofluid has been widely utilized for magnetic field and current sensing combined with various optical fiber structures. Hence, in this paper, the refractive index tunability of ferrofluid, which is mainly applied into the optical fiber sensors, is first reviewed and illustrated in detail. Then we mainly introduce our work on the applications of ferrofluid in optical fiber sensors based on the refractive index tunability of ferrofluid, including the whole physical configurations, the operating principles, and the performances of these optical fiber sensors. At last, the deficiencies of ferrofluid in the applications of optical fiber sensors as well as valuable potential prospects in further research are analyzed and presented. From all the above reviews and discussions, it can be foreseen that the characteristics of ferrofluid will be improved and the applications of ferrofluid-based optical fiber sensors will be developed rapidly and maturely. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To improve the sensitivity of Brillouin optical time domain reflecting (BOTDR) based on the Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI), a novel method was proposed by using fiber grating (FG). The FG was introduced not only as a filter to reduce the noise caused by Fresnel reflection and Rayleigh scattering, but also as the slow-light medium to improve the sensitivity of MZI used in BOTDR. Both uniform and nonuniform FGs were modeled, and then their transmission and group index spectra were calculated. By calculating the sensitivities of BOTDR demodulation, it was found that the power of noise light could be greatly reduced when nonuniform FG was utilized. Meanwhile, the phase and relative output power sensitivities of BOTDR demodulation could be improved to almost 20 times as large as the ones based on double-pass MZI. Besides, the sensitivity of BOTDR distributed sensor could also be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Graphene as a novel material has laid a foundation for its applications in optical fiber sensors, due to its unique properties, especially the optical properties. On the other hand, optical fiber sensors have received world-wide attention due to their high sensitivity, small size, good anti-electromagnetism disturbance ability and other potential advantages. In this paper, the developments of graphene in the applications of optical fiber sensors were reviewed from four aspects. Firstly, the common preparation methods of graphene were introduced. Next, the optical properties of graphene have been concluded. And then, some typical optical fiber chemical and biological sensors based on graphene, such as temperature sensors, biological sensors and gas sensors, were reviewed. It was shown that graphene had a great potential in the optical fiber sensing technology. Furthermore, the deficiencies and challenges of the graphene in the applications of optical fiber sensors were analyzed. In a whole, the unique advantages of graphene have present their versatility and importance in the application fields of optical fiber sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]