Polymer Fiber Optic Sensors – A Mini Review of their Synthesis and Applications

Abstract

Fiber optic sensors (FOSs) are optical fiber based sensing devices that have been widely used to detect physical, chemical and biological parameters. Polymer optical fibers (POFs), an important type of optical fibers, have been stifled their talents in the field of optical sensing due to the overwhelming popularity of glass optical fibers (GOFs). The unique physical and chemical properties of POFs start attracting interests to be utilized in the fabrication of high performance sensors in recent years. This article reviews the recent progress of POFs based FOSs. In particular, the article will focus on novel techniques implemented on the POF sensor fabrication, including monolayer graphene, evanescent wave absorption, localized surface plasmon resonance and fiber Bragg grating.