Comprehensive Review Tapered Optical Fiber Configurations for Sensing Application: Trend and Challenges

Citation

Taha, B.A.; Ali, N.; Sapiee, N.M.; Fadhel, M.M.; Mat Yeh, R.M.; Bachok, N.N.; Al Mashhadany, Y.; Arsad, N. Comprehensive Review Tapered Optical Fiber Configurations for Sensing Application: Trend and Challenges. Biosensors 2021, 11, 253. This article was published on July 27, 2021 in the journal Biosensors. The authors acknowledge funding from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Keywords

• tapered optical fiber
• optical sensors
• Bragg grating
• microstructure
• refractive index sensor

Brief

 This article is a comprehensive review of tapered optical fiber configurations for sensing applications, outlining their trends, challenges, and potential in medical and environmental fields.

Summary

 This 2021 article from the journal Biosensors by Taha, Ali, Sapiee, Fadhel, Yeh, Bachok, Mashhadany, and Arsad reviews eight classes of tapered optical fiber configurations used in sensing applications. These configurations are fiber Bragg grating (FBG), long-period fiber grating (LPFG), Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI), photonic crystals fiber (PCF), surface plasmonic resonance (SPR), multi-taper devices, fiber loop ring-down technology, and optical tweezers. The viability of each method for use in optical sensors was evaluated, taking into account the following four mean parameters of performance: taper length, sensitivity, wavelength scale, and waist diameter. The review concludes that tapered fibers can be designed as sensors for a variety of purposes, including sensing refractive index, temperature, humidity, and bio-sensing. The authors suggest that tapered fiber configurations are a promising technology for use in medical and environmental applications.