Fiber Optic Interferometer

This book highlights the key technology of fiber optic interferometers (FOI), providing a systematic overview of their principles and applications. FOI is among the first fiber optic sensors to achieve engineering applications due to its ultra-high sensitivity, yet challenges such as temperature drift and instability persist. Starting with the wave and coherence theories of light, the book explains the transmission and control of polarized light in optical fibers. It then covers the optical characteristics of major FOI types and introduces recent developments in short-cavity FP interferometers, white light interference, and long-range interferometers. The book also classifies and discusses holistic signal processing technologies for different types of interferometers. Furthermore, it presents in-depth analyses of several commercialized fiber optic sensors, including fiber underwater acoustic sensors (hydrophones), fiber vector/acceleration sensors, and fiber gyroscopes. Practical designs for a fiber hydrogen sensor and a refractive index sensor combining fiber gratings with Mach-Zehnder interferometers (LPG-MZ) are also included. This comprehensive resource is intended for students, engineers, and practitioners in the field.

Yanbiao Liao is an emeritus professor at Tsinghua University, China. Since the early 1980s, he has been involved in the basic research and application development of optical fiber sensing (OFS). In 1983, he was appointed to lead China’s first optical fiber sensor project, "Development of Optical Fiber High Voltage and High Current Sensor Prototype." He subsequently served as the expert group leader for OFS in China’s national "Seventh Five-Year" and "Eighth Five-Year" projects, overseeing their planning and implementation. Since 1990, he has led several major OFS projects. His contributions have been recognized with the National Invention Award and a National Science and Technology Progress Award in China. In 2012, he was named the General Chair of the OFS-22 Conference in Beijing by the international OFS Academic Association. In 2014, he became the first recipient of China’s OFS Lifetime Achievement Award.
Min Li is a professor at Wuhan University of Technology, China. She graduated from the Center of Fiber Optic Sensors (CFOS) at Tsinghua University, where she was mentored by Professor Liao Yanbiao. During her master’s studies in the 1990s, she began working on optical fiber current sensors and later developed a fiber optic gyroscope prototype and tested near-infrared sulfur fiber long-period gratings at CFOS. After obtaining her PhD, she continued her research on dynamic sensing with Fiber Bragg Grating sensors in Philadelphia and later focused on distributed Brillouin optical time domain analysis sensing systems. During her academic visit to the University of Strathclyde, UK, in 2009, she began exploring gas sensing and verified an intra-cavity sensing model with enhanced resonance spectrum of a fiber laser.
Wu Kuang received his doctoral degree in Electronic Engineering from Tsinghua University, China, in 2004 under the supervision of Professor Liao Yanbiao. He worked as a research fellow at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, from 2005 to 2008 and later as a scientist at I2R, A-Star, Singapore. Since 2012, He has founded and led multiple tech companies, focusing on software, hardware, and algorithms for signal processing. He has extensive experience in the development and application of optical fiber sensors, particularly in real-time signal processing and weak signal detection.