This paper presents a light and compact optical fiber Bragg Grating sensor for DC and AC magnetic field measurements. The fiber is coated by a thick layer of a magnetostrictive composite consisting of particles of Terfenol-D dispersed in a polymeric matrix. Among the different compositions for the coating that were tested, the best magnetostrictive response was obtained using an epoxy resin as binder and a 30% volume fraction of Terfenol-D particles with sizes ranging from 212 to 300 μm. The effect of a compressive preload in the sensor was also investigated. The achieved resolution was 0.4 mT without a preload or 0.3 mT with a compressive pre-stress of 8.6 MPa. The sensor was tested at magnetic fields of up to 750 mT under static conditions. Dynamic measurements were conducted with a magnetic unbalanced four-pole rotor.

A realistic implementation of an all-fiber CO2 sensor, using 74 cm of hollow core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF) as the cavity for light/gas interaction, has been implemented. It is based on CO2 absorbance in the 2 µm region. The working range is from 2% to 100% CO2 concentration at 1 atm total pressure and the response time obtained was 10 min. Depending on the concentration level, the sensor operates at one of three different wavelengths (2003.5 nm, 1997.0 nm and 1954.5 nm) to maintain a high sensitivity across all the working range.

A magnetic field sensor based on the integration of a high birefringence photonic crystal fiber and a composite material made of Terfenol particles and an epoxy resin is proposed. An in-fiber modal interferometer is assembled by evenly exciting both eigenemodes of the HiBi fiber. Changes in the cavity length as well as the effective refractive index are induced by exposing the sensor head to magnetic fields. The magnetic field sensor has a sensitivity of 0.006 (nm/mT) over a range from 0 to 300 mT with a resolution about ±1 mT. A fiber Bragg grating magnetic field sensor is also fabricated and employed to characterize the response of Terfenol composite to the magnetic field.

A passive surface acoustic wave (SAW) pressure sensor was developed for real-time pressure monitoring in downhole application. The passive pressure sensor consists of a SAW resonator, which is attached to a circular metal diaphragm used as a pressure transducer. While the membrane deflects as a function of pressure applied, the frequency response changes due to the variation of the SAW propagation parameters. The sensitivity and linearity of the SAW pressure sensor were measured to be 8.3 kHz/bar and 0.999, respectively. The experimental results were validated with a hybrid analytical–numerical analysis. The good results combined with the robust design and packaging for harsh environment demonstrated it to be a promising sensor for industrial applications.

The effect of hydrostatic pressure on the waveguiding properties of high birefringence photonic crystal fibers (HiBi PCF) is evaluated both numerically and experimentally. A fiber design presenting form birefringence induced by two enlarged holes in the innermost ring defining the fiber core is investigated. Numerical results show that modal sensitivity to the applied pressure depends on the diameters of the holes, and can be tailored by independently varying the sizes of the large or small holes. Numerical and experimental results are compared showing excellent agreement. A hydrostatic pressure sensor is proposed and demonstrated using an in-fiber modal interferometer where the two orthogonally polarized modes of a HiBi PCF generate fringes over the optical spectrum of a broad band source. From the analysis of experimental results, it is concluded that, in principle, an operating limit of 92 MPa in pressure could be achieved with 0.0003% of full scale resolution.