Optical Fibre Sensors For Gaseous Chemical Species

A new class of chemical sensors has begun to emerge which are based on the concept of using optically conducting fibre interfaced to a small transducer that varies its optical property with some chemical parameter of interest. This growing new technology which is generating a great deal of interest, can produce a series of optical fibre chemical sensors that can have many advantages in their application to process control, environmental and clinical analyses. Depending on the particular device, the optical property measured can he absorbance, reflectance, luminescence or scattering of light. This paper discusses some of the applications of this new kind of sensors for the detection and determination of gaseous chemical species.