Influence of Annealing on Polymer Optical Fiber Bragg Grating Inscription, Stability and Sensing: A Review

Abstract

This article reviews recent research progress on the annealing effects on polymer optical fibers (POFs), which are of great importance for inscription, stability and sensing applications of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) in POFs due to their unique properties related to polymer molecular chains. In this review, the principle of annealing to reduce frozen-in stress in POFs drawing and different annealing timings are firstly summarized. Then, the annealing methods for POFs are introduced under several different conditions (temperature, humidity, strain, stress and solution). Afterwards, the principle of FBGs and several inscription techniques are reported. Subsequently, the annealing effects on the properties of POFs and polymer optical fiber Bragg gratings (POFBGs) quality are discussed. Finally, the influence of annealing on POFBG sensitivity is summarized. Overall, this paper provides a comprehensive overview of annealing techniques and their impact on both POFs and POFBGs. We hope that it will highlight the important progress made in this field.

Splitter-Based Sensors Realized via POFs Coupled by a Micro-Trench Filled with a Molecularly Imprinted Polymer

“…The most widely used optical sensors are those based on the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) phenomenon [ 20 , 21 , 22 ], but many other optical transduction techniques have been proposed [ 23 , 24 ], such as fluorescence [ 25 ], evanescent fields [ 26 ], interferometric techniques [ 27 ], fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) [ 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 ], long-period fiber gratings (LPFGs) [ 33 ], and intensity-based sensors [ 34 , 35 , 36 ].…”