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

Understanding environmental information is necessary for functions correlated with human activities to improve healthcare quality and reduce ecological risk. Tapered optical fibers reduce some limitations of such devices and can be considerably more responsive to fluorescence and absorption properties changes. Data have been collected from reliable sources such as Science Direct, IEEE Xplore, Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, and Google Scholar. In this narrative review, we have summarized and analyzed eight classes of tapered-fiber forms: 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. We evaluated many issues to make an informed judgement about the viability of employing the best of these methods in optical sensors. The analysis of performance for tapered optical fibers depends on four mean parameters: taper length, sensitivity, wavelength scale, and waist diameter. Finally, we assess the most potent strategy that has the potential for medical and environmental applications.

Ring-Oscillator with Multiple Transconductors for Linear Analog-to-Digital Conversion

This paper proposes a new circuit-based approach to mitigate nonlinearity in open-loop ring-oscillator-based analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). The approach consists of driving a current-controlled oscillator (CCO) with several transconductors connected in parallel with different bias conditions. The current injected into the oscillator can then be properly sized to linearize the oscillator, performing the inverse current-to-frequency function. To evaluate the approach, a circuit example has been designed in a 65-nm CMOS process, leading to a more than 3-ENOB enhancement in simulation for a high-swing differential input voltage signal of 800-mVpp, with considerable less complex design and lower power and expected area in comparison to state-of-the-art circuit based solutions. The architecture has also been checked against PVT and mismatch variations, proving to be highly robust, requiring only very simple calibration techniques. The solution is especially suitable for high-bandwidth (tens of MHz) medium-resolution applications (10–12 ENOBs), such as 5G or Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices.

A Torsion Relative Angle Measurement Method Based on Fiber-Loop Ring-Down with Intra-Cavity Amplification

Background: The fiber-loop ring-down spectroscopy technique has the benefits of optical fiber sensors and also has many unique advantages. Combined with various sensor structures, the FLRD system can achieve different physical, chemical, and biological sensors. Objective: To find a way to solve the problems of light fluctuation and low sensitivity, a high sensitivity and reliability torsion relative angle measurement system is necessary. Methods: The torsion relative angle measurement is achieved by using the fiber loop ring-down intra-cavity amplification. The sensitivity, correlation coefficient, and repeatability are analyzed with the experiment. Results: The sensitivity and correlation coefficient of the proposed system are 4.05 μs/° and 0.9996, respectively. The repeated experiments show that the standard deviation is 9.592×10-4. Conclusion: The proposed measurement method provides a way to solve the problems of light fluctuation and low sensitivity and has promising applications in the optically active solutions, fiber radial stress birefringence, and polarization state measurement of fiber lasers.

Fiber loop ring-down spectroscopy with a long-period grating cavity

Cavity Ring-down spectroscopy is an absorption detection technique that makes the[sic]use of an optical cavity to realize a long effective optical path length through a sample and to render the measurement independent of intensity. These two features give the ring-down spectroscopy many advantages over traditional absorption techniques and allow it to measure chemicals present in trace amount. This thesis presents my study of fiber loop ring-down spectroscopy with a long-period grating (LPG) cavity as the sensing section. There are several advantages in this design: 1) It provides a relatively larger sensing area for the evanescent wave to interact with the environment when compared with a fiber taper and a D-shaped fiber; 2) The LPG cavity has a much lower insertion loss than the micro-cell; and 3) The tensile strength of the fiber is well preserved. Many issues such as the LPG mode order, LPG cavity loss, sample cell design, ring-down pulse detection and analysis have been studied. As an example, the technique was applied to measure the spectral absorption of 1-octyne in decane solution and a detection limit of 0.62% 1-octyne was determined with the exist[ing] experimental setup, which is a fact or 2 better than the result using fiber taper.

Fiber loop ring-down spectroscopy with a long-period grating cavity

Cavity Ring-down spectroscopy is an absorption detection technique that makes the[sic]use of an optical cavity to realize a long effective optical path length through a sample and to render the measurement independent of intensity. These two features give the ring-down spectroscopy many advantages over traditional absorption techniques and allow it to measure chemicals present in trace amount. This thesis presents my study of fiber loop ring-down spectroscopy with a long-period grating (LPG) cavity as the sensing section. There are several advantages in this design: 1) It provides a relatively larger sensing area for the evanescent wave to interact with the environment when compared with a fiber taper and a D-shaped fiber; 2) The LPG cavity has a much lower insertion loss than the micro-cell; and 3) The tensile strength of the fiber is well preserved. Many issues such as the LPG mode order, LPG cavity loss, sample cell design, ring-down pulse detection and analysis have been studied. As an example, the technique was applied to measure the spectral absorption of 1-octyne in decane solution and a detection limit of 0.62% 1-octyne was determined with the exist[ing] experimental setup, which is a fact or 2 better than the result using fiber taper.

Identification of Recycled Cooking Oil by Varying Number of Au/GO Coated Fiber Optic’s Loop Ring

This study investigates the effect gold nanoparticles (Au)/graphene oxide (GO) coated fibre optics with various number of loop ring in identifying recycled cooking oil based on their frying time. Various layers of gold nanoparticles (AuNP) suspension were deposited onto the substrate via drop casting technique. Few material characterizations were performed such as Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, Ultraviolet Visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy and refractometer analysis. Three macrobending structures of Au/GO coated fiber optic’s loop ring such as single, double and triple loops with diameter of 1.5cm were formed to generate large area of evanescent field around the fibre and to excite surface plasmon polaritons due to the interaction between AuNPs and analytes. Cooking oil samples with different frying time such as 14 minutes, 28 minutes and 42 minutes were prepared as analytes. The FTIR analysis revealed some changes in the transmittance percent of some bands as well as some slight shifts in the exact position of the bands due to the different of fatty acid composition. As the Au/GO coated fibre optics were immersed into the samples, the penetration depths were obtained as 142.75nm and 168.91nm at operating wavelengths of λ=1310nm and λ=1550nm, respectively. By using 1550nm operating wavelength due to its greater penetration depth than 1310nm, triple loop rings fibre optics coated with two layers of AuNP and one layer of GO exhibits a linear consistency with maximum sensitivity up to 69.17% due to the formation of large evanescent field around the loop area and intense SPP excitation.

Dual-Band MIMO Antenna for 5G/WLAN Mobile Terminals

This paper presents a dual-band four-element multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) array for the fifth generation (5G) mobile communication. The proposed antenna is composed of an open-loop ring resonator feeding element and a T-shaped radiating element. The utilization of the open-loop ring resonator not only reduces the size of the antenna element, but also provides positive cross-coupling. The dimension of a single antenna element is 14.9 mm × 7 mm (0.27λ × 0.13λ, where λ is the wavelength of 5.5 GHz). The MIMO antenna exhibits a dual-band feature from 3.3 to 3.84 GHz and 4.61 to 5.91 GHz, which can cover 5G New Radio N78 (3.3–3.8 GHz), 5G China Band N79 (4.8–5 GHz), and IEEE 802.11 ac (5.15–5.35 GHz, 5.725–5.85 GHz). The measured total efficiency and isolation are better than 70% and 15 dB, respectively. The calculated envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) is less than 0.02. The measured results are in good agreement with the simulated results.

Induced dichroism in fiber optical resonators with an embedded optically active element

In this paper we have demonstrated the emergence of an effective circular dichroism for the fundamental mode in fiber resonators of loop and ring types with an optically active element embedded into the loop/ring. Changing the parameters of the resonator, the optically active element, or the wavelength of the incoming field allows one to control the value of the effective dichroism and actually, to increase optical activity of the element. It is shown that these resonators can be used as working elements of all-fiber polarizers for the fundamental mode.