A brief review on suspended-core fibers for sensing applications is presented. A historical overview over the previous ten years about this special designed microstructure optical fiber is described. This fiber presents attractive optical properties for chemical/biological or gas measurement, but it can be further explored for alternative sensing solutions, namely, in-fiber interferometers based on the suspended-core or suspended-multi-core fiber, for physical parameter monitoring.

A brief review of recent progress in researches, productions and applications of full distributed fiber Raman photon sensors at China Jiliang University (CJLU) is presented. In order to improve the measurement distance, the accuracy, the space resolution, the ability of multi-parameter measurements, and the intelligence of full distributed fiber sensor systems, a new generation fiber sensor technology based on the optical fiber nonlinear scattering fusion principle is proposed. A series of new generation full distributed fiber sensors are investigated and designed, which consist of new generation ultra-long distance full distributed fiber Raman and Rayleigh scattering photon sensors integrated with a fiber Raman amplifier, auto-correction full distributed fiber Raman photon temperature sensors based on Raman correlation dual sources, full distributed fiber Raman photon temperature sensors based on a pulse coding source, full distributed fiber Raman photon temperature sensors using a fiber Raman wavelength shifter, a new type of Brillouin optical time domain analyzers (BOTDAs) integrated with a fiber Raman amplifier for replacing a fiber Brillouin amplifier, full distributed fiber Raman and Brillouin photon sensors integrated with a fiber Raman amplifier, and full distributed fiber Brillouin photon sensors integrated with a fiber Brillouin frequency shifter. The Internet of things is believed as one of candidates of the next technological revolution, which has driven hundreds of millions of class markets. Sensor networks are important components of the Internet of things. The full distributed optical fiber sensor network (Rayleigh, Raman, and Brillouin scattering) is a 3S (smart materials, smart structure, and smart skill) system, which is easy to construct smart fiber sensor networks. The distributed optical fiber sensor can be embedded in the power grids, railways, bridges, tunnels, roads, constructions, water supply systems, dams, oil and gas pipelines and other facilities, and can be integrated with wireless networks.

The improvement of the signal to noise ratio (SNR) has significant meaning to the fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensing system. The source of the noise as well as the signal attenuation of the FBG sensing system is analyzed. It is found that optical noise caused by the optical return loss (ORL) is the main source of noises in the system, and the coupler is the main source of attenuation of the signal. The cause of the ORL in fiber-optic elements (such as jumper cables connector and fiber end) is presented. In addition, suggestions to optimize the fiber optical sensing network in order to improve the SNR are presented. Methods to suppress noises caused by the fiber end interfaces of FBGs, including using index-matching fluid, bending fiber pigtails in the way mentioned in this paper and cleaving the slant angle of the fiber interfaces to be 8°, all contribute to the optimized SNR. Besides, the thermo-weld method is suggested to be used for both parallel and serial FBG setups to provide a low insertion loss. The results would be a useful engineering tool to design the high SNR optical sensing system.

Based on the full vector complex coupled mode theory, a detailed analysis is made on the transmission spectrum characteristics of tilted long period fiber gratings. New transmission peaks are observed, which are located beside the long wavelength side of each transmission peak in the transmission spectrum of normal long period fiber gratings. The emerging transmission peaks are quite sensitive to both the grating tilted angle and the surrounding refractive index, and the corresponding relationship is discussed. Furthermore, a novel sensing characteristic is investigated about the tilted long period fiber gratings, which is related to the transmission resonant wavelength and peak amplitude.

A 20-node fiber-grating-based wireless sensor network is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Each sensor node is integrated with the light source, 1-3 FBG sensing probes, wavelength demodulation, and wireless communication module. Via self-organized clusters and low energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH) route protocols, the sensor nodes are able to exchange sensing data with the control center, and the maximum communication radius of a sensor node is over 170 m. The sensor node is battery-powered with a survival lifetime of up to 120 days at a network refresh rate of 5 minutes.

Optical logic gates are elementary components for optical network and optical computing. In this paper, we propose a structure for AND, NAND, XNOR and NOR logic gates in the two dimensional photonic crystal which utilizes the dispersion based self-collimation effect. The self-collimated beam is splitted by the line defect and interfered with other self-collimated beam. This interference may be constructive or destructive based on their phase difference. This phenomenon is employed to realize all-optical logic gates. The gates are demonstrated numerically by computing electromagnetic field distribution using the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. The results ensure that this design can function as AND, NAND, XNOR and NOR logic gates. The size of the structure is about 10 μm×10 μm which in turn results in an increase in the speed and all the gates are realized in the same configuration. The ON-OFF contrast ratio is about 6 dB.

Using the Maxwell-Garnett theory, the evolution of the refractive index of titanium dioxide (TiO2) doped with zinc sulfide (ZnS) particles is presented. The presence of the nano-objects in the host matrix allows us to obtain a new composite material with tunable optical properties. We find that the filling factor of ZnS nanoparticles greatly alters photonic band gaps (PBGs). We have calculated also the photonic band structure for electromagnetic waves propagating in a structure consisting of ZnS rods covered with the air shell layer in 2D hexagonal and square lattices by the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. The rods are embedded in the TiO2 background medium with a high dielectric constant. Such photonic lattices present complete photonic band gaps (CPBGs). Our results show that the existence of the air shell layer leads to larger complete photonic gaps. We believe that the present results are significant to increase the possibilities for experimentalists to realize a sizeable and larger CPBG.

The homogeneous, intensity modulated salinity sensor using the photonic crystal ring resonator (PCRR) is proposed and designed for monitoring the salinity of the seawater from 0% to 100% (0 g/L to 100 g/L) at 25 ℃. The concentration of the salinity in the seawater changes the refractive index of the seawater. The change in the refractive index of the seawater brings the change in the output signal intensity of the sensor as the seawater flows inside the sensor. By detecting the output power and mapping the salinity level, the salinity can be evaluated. The proposed sensor is composed of periodic Si rods embedded in an air host with a circular PCRR placed between the inline quasi waveguides. Approximately, 2.69% of output power reduction is observed for every 5% (5 g/L) increase in the salinity as the seawater has a unique refractive index for each salt level. With this underlying principle, the performance of the sensor is analyzed for different temperatures.

This article reviews my new optical fiber sensing (OFS) research activities in China for the last ten years at Chongqing University and University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, since I returned from UK in 1999. The research progress in long period fiber gratings (LPFGs), distributed fiber sensing systems and microfiber sensors is introduced. For LPFGs, the processing method with high-frequency CO2 laser pulses types of LPFGs fabricated and the related applications for both optical sensing and optical communication are described. For distributed fiber sensing systems, the fiber-optic polarization optical time domain reflectometer (POTDR), fiber-optic phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometer (Φ-OTDR) and Brillouin optical time-domain analyzer (BOTDA) are developed, respectively. For microfiber sensors, we mainly focus on the knot resonator and its application for sensing of the refractive index and acceleration, etc.