Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine 24-5 - 3

guesteditorial
Nunzio Cennamo and Pedro A.S. Jorge
Optical Measurements
O
ptical sensing techniques are used in a large variety
of application fields where fast, portable,
remote-sensing, low-cost and/or rugged devices
are required for detection, identification, and measurements
of a variety of parameters. Sensors based on optical fibers are
exploited in demanding applications, including pharmaceutical
research, medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring,
structural health monitoring, physical parameters detection,
industrial applications, food safety and security. In these instances,
sensors systems often benefit from the versatility of
glass, plastic or specialty optical fibers.
In a similar way, optical measurements can also be based
on planar waveguides to realize integrated optical sensors or
bio sensor systems (lab-on-chip). Extremely compact label-free
optical bio-chemical sensors can be explored for " Smart Cities "
applications, as in water or air quality monitoring, through an
IoT (Internet of Thing) approach, or, alternatively, they can
be used on board of simple robots, based on an autonomous
operation, to map the concentrations of pollutants in several
scenarios.
In recent years, new measurement schemes, materials, and
devices, based on distributed and point sensing, have been
presented to improve the performances, the miniaturization,
the multiplexing capabilities, and the microfluidic integration
of optical sensors in several applications.
The main purpose of this special issue of Instrumentation
& Measurement Magazine is to give readers a glimpse of this
exciting field by bringing together researchers active in the
innovative developments of transducer schemes, smart materials,
nanostructures, and applications of optical sensor
systems, providing an overview on most recent advances.
Eleven representative papers are presented, introducing
original optical sensor-based solutions for interesting applications
and showing novel sensing approaches that are based
mainly in optical fibers.
The paper " Linearity and Nonlinearity in Hollow-Core
Antiresonant Fiber Sensors in the Terahertz Regime " by Jakeya
Sultana et al. presents an interesting analysis on hollow-core
antiresonant fiber sensors.
In the work " Precisely Designed and Modeled DoubleClad
Fiber Optic Pressure Sensor, " Mohammad Davoud
Talebzadeh and Marzieh Khademalrasool propose a new
August 2021
pressure sensor configuration based on specialty optical
fibers.
A very interesting non-contact sensor to measure the liquid
level, exploring the synergy between optical interferometry
and neural networks, is presented by Juan Manuel RamírezCortés
et al. in " Non-Contact Liquid Level Measurement Using
Optical Interferometry and Neural Networks. "
The potential of photonics to improve robotics is explored
in " Optical Force/Tactile Sensors for Robotic Applications "
by Marco Costanzo and Salvatore Pirozzi, where a simple and
low-cost optoelectronics force/tactile sensor is reported.
In " Application of a Fiber Optic Refractometric Sensor to
Measure the Concentration of Paracetamol in Crystallization
Experiments, " Liliana Soares et al. demonstrate the potential
impact that very simple and compact refractometric measurements,
enabled by optical fibers, can have in pharmaceutical
applications.
An interesting perspective in health applications based
on optical fiber sensors is also explored by Arnaldo LealJunior
and Carlos Marques in " Optical Fiber-Integrated
Smart Structures: Towards Transparent Devices for Healthcare
4.0. "
In addition, in " Chemical and Biological Applications
Based on Plasmonic Optical Fiber Sensors, " Chiara Perri
et al. report bio-chemical sensing applications based on
plasmonic sensors supported by optical fibers that can
also enable a diversity of new health and environmental
applications.
In " Spectral Reconstruction and Bayesian Model Framework
for Characterization of Long Period Fiber Gratings, "
Bernardo Dias et al. show us the importance of signal processing
in improving the performance of optical sensors in a study
on sensors based on Long Period Fiber Gratings.
In a more fundamental approach, the paper " Multi-Plasmonic
Resonance Based Sensor for the Characterization of
Optical Dispersion Using a D-Shaped Photonic Crystal Fiber "
by Markos P. Cardoso et al. reports an analysis of plasmonic
sensors realized in specialty optical fibers.
In " Demonstration of Single Photon Detection in
Amorphous Molybdenum Silicide / Aluminium Superconducting
Nanostrip, " Daniela Salvoni et al. present a novel
sensor concept/approach to realize single photon detection,
IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine
3
Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine 24-5

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