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Photonics
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Fiber Optic Sensors: Advances, Technologies and Applications
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Fiber Optic Sensors: Advances, Technologies and Applications

A special issue of Photonics (ISSN 2304-6732). This special issue belongs to the section "Lasers, Light Sources and Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2026 | Viewed by 730

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Qiang Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Computer and Electronic Information, Nanjing Normal University, No.1 Wenyuan Road, Nanjing 210023, China
Interests: fiber optic sensing; interferometric sensor; demodulation algorithm; dynamic multi-parameter detection; optical fiber sensor network
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue of Photonics, titled "Fiber Optic Sensors: Advances, Technologies and Applications." Fiber optic sensing represents a transformative technology, renowned for its exceptional advantages, including high sensitivity, immunity to electromagnetic interference, compact size, and capability for distributed and remote measurements in harsh environments. Driven by continuous innovation in materials science, fabrication techniques, and data analytics, the field is rapidly expanding into new and demanding applications across scientific and industrial domains.

This Special Issue aims to collate high-quality research and review articles that showcase the latest breakthroughs in fiber optic sensing. The scope encompasses fundamental advances in sensor design and materials, novel interrogation and signal processing technologies, and cutting-edge applications that demonstrate the real-world impact of these devices. We seek to provide a comprehensive overview of the state of the art, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and highlighting future directions.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Novel fiber optic sensor designs (e.g., fiber Bragg gratings, long-period gratings, interferometric sensors, and photonic crystal fibers);
  • Specialty optical fibers for sensing (e.g., multi-core, hollow-core, soft-glass, and radiation-resistant fibers);
  • Advanced fabrication and functionalization techniques (e.g., femtosecond laser inscription, nano-coatings, and integration with functional materials);
  • Interrogation techniques, demodulation methods, and optical signal processing;
  • Integration with artificial intelligence and machine learning for enhanced data analysis and system performance;
  • Applications in structural health monitoring, industrial process control, and smart infrastructure;
  • Applications in environmental monitoring (e.g., water quality, gas sensing, and disaster prevention);
  • Biomedical and healthcare applications (e.g., biosensors, minimally invasive diagnostics, and patient monitoring);
  • Applications in aerospace, automotive, and marine engineering.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Qiang Liu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Photonics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • fiber optic sensors
  • optical sensing
  • fiber bragg gratings
  • distributed sensing
  • biosensors
  • signal processing

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 3174 KB  
Article
A Hybrid Model Integrating CNN–BiLSTM for Discriminating Strain and Temperature Effects on FBG-Based Sensors
by Chuanhao Wei, Qiang Liu, Dongdong Lin, Dan Zhu, Jingzhan Shi and Yiping Wang
Photonics 2026, 13(3), 254; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics13030254 - 4 Mar 2026
Viewed by 471
Abstract
A primary bottleneck in deploying Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors lies in their inherent dual sensitivity to thermal and mechanical variations, which mandates robust decoupling mechanisms for precise parameter extraction. To address this persistent cross-sensitivity issue, this study introduces a novel interrogation scheme [...] Read more.
A primary bottleneck in deploying Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors lies in their inherent dual sensitivity to thermal and mechanical variations, which mandates robust decoupling mechanisms for precise parameter extraction. To address this persistent cross-sensitivity issue, this study introduces a novel interrogation scheme that integrates a Convolutional Neural Network with a Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (CNN-BiLSTM) architecture. Instead of relying on conventional peak-tracking algorithms or isolated central wavelengths, our proposed data-driven strategy directly mines structural features from the full reflection spectra, thereby substantially mitigating cross-interference errors. The experimental results reveal that the coefficients of determination (R2) for strain and temperature prediction reach 99.37% and 99.75% each, while the root mean square errors (RMSEs) are 13.51 µε and 1.42 °C, respectively. The proposed method requires only a single FBG sensor, which reduces the sensor requirements, showing great potential in sensing applications requiring low costs and high adaptability. In addition, in some special environments, temperature information cannot be obtained, so we utilize another reference FBG to realize the temperature compensation. Meanwhile, we proposed a spectral differencing method (SDM) by differencing the spectra of the two FBGs to obtain the spectra containing only strain information and sent them as a dataset for model training, with a 4-times improvement in accuracy over traditional compensation methods. Finally, we also explored the application of the system for distributed FBGs, achieving an absolute peak wavelength interrogation precision of approximately ±0.02 nm. The system is expected to be applied in the field of structural health monitoring, which is promising even in harsh environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fiber Optic Sensors: Advances, Technologies and Applications)
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