Optical fibre monitoring and measuring systems from the nanoscale to the human scale

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Advanced Sensor systems are essential tools for the deployment of Internet of Things applications, whereby the accumulation of information and its processing allows for the improvement of the quality of life in many different ways. Smart environments adapting to changing conditions (such as self-driving vehicles), enhanced national and personal security, clean air and secure water or food supply are but a few examples of applications relying on accurate and timely sensor data. While such sensor systems currently exist, they rely for the most part on relatively old technologies based on many different kinds of electrical devices and various kinds of image sensors. This variety limits their capabilities and performance as well as their integration into "intelligent" systems where data from many different sources must be processed. The program of research proposed here consists of leveraging relatively new technologies based on lasers and optical fibers to develop a “universal” optical fiber-based sensing system that can be easily adapted to measuring a wide array of parameters with performance levels dictated by the trade-off between cost and both user requirements and competing technologies, without fundamental changes in the device configurations and instrumentation. This system will be flexible enough to find applications in environmental monitoring, biomedical devices, structural health monitoring, food safety, and manufacturing process monitoring.