Fiber Optic Applications

Fiber Optic Applications
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Abstract
This paper recognizes the different applications of fiber optics in geotechnical and civil engineering and other fields, including communication, health care, undersea environment, space, environment, military, etc. It was established in the report that FOS technologies provide sensing capabilities within undesirable environmental conditions where traditional electronic sensors fail. The paper also recognized different kinds of applications of fiber optics in bio-imaging and bio-sensing dimensions. Fiber optics are appropriate for radiation identification and tracking, especially in human bodies and airplanes. There is a rising application in smart textiles to improve competitive edge of the apparel industry and achieve customer satisfaction improvement. The review of the existing evidence on fiber optics calls for the need for further research to establish future possibilities.
Key words: Fiber Optics, Optical Fiber, Radiation Sensors, Bio-Sensing, Bio-Imaging
Introduction
While many people have heard the term "optimal fiber" or "fiber optics" as a technology anchored on applying light, very few understand their applications. Fiber optics entails the transfer of images, voice, and data by passing light through fiber cables over long distances. Regarding fiber optic functioning, light passes via a fiber optic cable while constantly reflecting off the cable walls. Each photon or light particle bounces down the conduit with constant internal reflections, thus making the light beam travel down the cable core. The core is at the cable's center, and a glass structure with a cladding tier surrounds it. The optical fiber can transmit more information volumes compared to the traditional copper wire because of its faster speeds and higher bandwidth. As a poor conductor of electricity, fiber optics experienced minimal signal losses and was not affected by electromagnetic interference. Fiber optics have numerous applications, including computer networking and broadcasting, cable and internet television, medical, undersea environment, and military and space. This literature review recognizes the application of fiber optics in next-generation intelligence sensing, bio-sensing and bio-imaging, radiation sensors and dosimeters, geotechnical and civil applications, and smart textiles.
Next-generation Intelligence Sensing
According to Venketeswaran et al. (2022), fiber optic sensors (FOS) potentiate significant promise in supporting next-generation intelligence sensing tools that provide better accuracy, distributed scalability, and long-distance, as well as multi-parametric tracking amid harsh ecological contexts. FOS technologies provide sensing capabilities in undesirable environmental conditions where traditional electronic sensors fail. Several FOS tools have been created to evaluate different thermal, chemical, and mechanical measures (e.g., gas species, temperature, vibrations, etc.) for point, distributed sensing, and quasi-distributed applications. The study indicated that fiber optics-driven chemical sensing incorporates the employment of an optical fiber as a single-completed probe, where the cultured fiber tip remains either sensitized with specific materials that demonstrate optical attributes that detail to the contextual chemical environment or is light-coupled from one particular external source. Accordingly, the study recognized limitations related to the application of FOS, including cross-sensitivity, reduced speed in data processing, huge volumes and significant data generation, signal-to-noise degradation ratio over the fiber length as well as the overall cost of interrogator and sensor systems. Developing sophisticated data analytics engines anchored on recent machine learning and artificial intelligence innovations constitutes one of the primary approaches to overcoming the abovementioned challenges (Venketeswaran et al., 2022). Overall, the study offered a comprehensive review of current FOS architecture breakthroughs that integrate artificial intelligence technologies and machine learning algorithms.
Venketeswaran et al. (2022) recognized that empirical research and advances in sophisticated FOS software tools have led to significant benefits, including accelerated big data processing anchored on distributed FOS architecture and trends recognition based on distributed or quasi-distributed FOS, as well as advancement in the capabilities of multi-parameter sensing. In the same breath, Li et al. (2022) recognized the improvements in fiber optics as well as the unique merits, including lightweight, small size, safeguards from electromagnetic interference, low costs, as well as better light transmission. The study demonstrates the applications of fiber optics in communications, sensing, imaging, and laser systems. In this vein, this literature review also recognizes the use of fiber optics in bio-sensing and bio-imaging.
Bio-imaging and Bio-Sensing
According to Li et al. (2022), fiber optics applications in bio-imaging and bio-sensing domains have drawn significant emphasis in the recent past geared at promoting improved comprehension of pathological and biological processes. These applications are attributed to fiber optics' unique merits, such as biocompatibility, lack of electromagnet interference, fast response, compact size, etc. The paper extensively delineated different kinds of fiber optics bio-imaging and bio-sensing, such as fiber optics grating, Sagnac interferometer, Michelson interferometer, surface plasmon resonance, Mach-Zehnder interferometer, surface-improved Raman scattering, photoacoustic imaging (PAI), Fabry-Perot interferometer, and lossy mode resonance. The review paper delineated several kinds of fiber optics bio-sensors and ultrasound identification within PAI as well as the utilization of these solutions in bio-imaging and bio-sensing areas. Similar to Venketeswaran et al. (2022), who argued that FOS technologies offer better sensing capabilities in undesirable environmental contexts where traditional electronic sensors failed, Lai et al. (2022) noted that optical fiber bio-sensors constitute a paradigm shift from the conventional approaches for label-free bio-molecular measures due to multi-parameter and selective sensing as well as high sensitivity. According to Lai et al. (2022), the optical fiber bio-sensors generate pointers that are increasingly relative to the analytes' concentration while the recorded pointers are appraised via diverse methodologies, including wavelength shift tracking, phase shift, frequency shift, as well as intensity fluctuation. In this context, improved sensing of reduced-concentration analytes helps in early illness diagnosis and subsequent treatment (Lai et al., 2022).
Another recent study presented the advancement and assessment of the current label-free bio-sensors driven by fiber optics, especially those whose performance could be verified via the C-reactive protein (CRP) detection in serum (Esposito et al., 2021). The device is anchored on extended timescale grating made up of a double layer (cladding) fiber with a refractive index (RI) profile. Consequently, the device's working point is tailored to achieve mode transition location by the external fiber cladding chemical etching, achieving a substantial improvement in RI sensitivity, as well as good visibility of the graphene oxide layer grating metric to offer functional clusters strong biological recognition constituent immobilization. These measures were geared at improving fiber optical architecture performance for bio-sensing. In this way, the study proved usin...