In-fibre Bragg grating sensors

TLDR

In-fibre Bragg grating sensors are a leading optical fibre technology, offering advantages over conventional sensors, promising for smart structures, and expected to be widely commercialized thanks to mature, cost‑effective production and interrogation methods. This article aims to provide a comprehensive overview of FBG sensor technology. The overview covers sensing principles, properties, fabrication, interrogation, and multiplexing of FBG sensors. Significant progress has been achieved in applying FBG sensors to strain and temperature measurements.

Abstract

In-fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensors are one of the most exciting developments in the field of optical fibre sensors in recent years. Compared with conventional fibre-optic sensors, FBG sensors have a number of distinguishing advantages. Significant progress has been made in applications to strain and temperature measurements. FBG sensors prove to be one of the most promising candidates for fibre-optic smart structures. This article presents a comprehensive and systematic overview of FBG sensor technology regarding many aspects including sensing principles, properties, fabrication, interrogation and multiplexing of FBG sensors. It is anticipated that FBG sensor systems will be commercialized and widely applied in practice in the near future due to the maturity of economical production of FBGs and the availability of cost effective interrogation and multiplexing techniques.