Abstract
In this work an all-optical hot-wire flowmeter based on a silver coated fiber combining a long period grating and a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) structure is proposed. Light from a pump laser at 1480nm propagating down the fiber is coupled by the long period grating into the fiber cladding and is absorbed by the silver coating deposited on the fiber surface over the Bragg grating structure. This absorption acts like a hot wire raising the fiber temperature locally, which is effectively detected by the FBG resonance shift. The temperature increase depends on the flow speed of the surrounding air, which has the effect of cooling the fiber. It is demonstrated that the Bragg wavelength shift can be related to the flow speed. A flow speed resolution of 0.08m/s is achieved using this new configuration. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America

Abstract
The potential applications of luminescent semiconductor nanocrystals to optical oxygen sensing are explored. The suitability of quantum dots to provide a reference signal in luminescence-based chemical sensors is addressed. A CdSe-ZnS nanocrystal, with an emission peak at 520 nm, is used to provide a reference signal. Measurements of oxygen concentration, which are based on the dynamic quenching of the luminescence of a ruthenium complex, are performed. Both the dye and the nanocrystal are immobilized in a solgel matrix and are excited by a blue LED. Experimental results show that the ratio between the reference and the sensor signals is highly insensitive to fluctuations of the excitation optical power. The use of CdTe, near-infrared quantum dots with an emission wavelength of 680 run, in combination with a ruthenium complex to provide a new mechanism for oxygen sensing, is investigated. The possibility of creating oxygen sensitivity in different spectral regions is demonstrated. The results obtained clearly show that this technique can be applied to develop a wavelength division multiplexed system of oxygen sensors. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.

Abstract
In this letter, interferometric sensors based on antiresonance reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW) fibers were developed, and used to sense strain and temperature. Two types of solid-ore ARROW fibers were considered and signal demodulation was achieved by using the white light interferometric technique. The ARROW fibers have two rings of high index rods arranged in a hexagonal structure with a lattice constant of 6 m. The different sizes of the rods cause different measurand sensitivities for the two fibers. Resolutions of +/- 1.1 mu epsilon and +/- 0.07 degrees C were achieved for strain and temperature, respectively.

Abstract
In this work a modal interferometer based on arc-induced long-period gratings (LPGs) in a Mach-Zehnder configuration is evaluated as a sensing structure for environmental refractive index measurement. To interrogate this sensing device, coherence addressing and pseudo-heterodyne processing were used. The influence of geometric effects such as stretching, bending and twisting the interferometer on the sensitivity to refractive index changes was studied. It is shown that due to the antisymmetric nature of cladding modes in arc-induced LPGs, it is possible to tune the system sensitivity to external refractive index by simple mechanical action. The experimental results show that it is possible to tune the sensitivity to external refractive index by more than 50% by control of the curvature in the Mach-Zehnder interferometer.

Abstract
The use of semiconductor nano-particles as temperature probes in luminescence chemical sensing applications is addressed. Temperature changes the intensity, the peak wavelength and the spectral width of the quantum dots luminescent emission in a linear and reversible way. Results are presented that show the feasibility of implementing a self-referenced intensity-based sensor to perform temperature measurements independent of the optical power level in the sensing system. A resolution of 0.3 degrees C was achieved. In addition, it is demonstrated that self-referenced temperature measurements at multiple points could be performed using reflection or transmission based optical fibre configurations.

Abstract
An optical fiber sensing system, for monitoring oxygen aiming in vivo nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) applications is presented. Oxygen detection is based on the dynamic quenching of the fluorescence of a ruthenium complex trapped in the porous structure of a sol-gel silica film. Oxygen concentration is determined by phase-modulation fluorometry. Preliminary results concerning the characterization of doped sol-gel thin films deposited by dip coating in glass slides and in optical fiber probes are presented. Four different probe configurations are tested and compared. Best results are obtained with a fiber taper configuration which shows reproducibility and best excitation efficiency. This structure is fully characterized and some considerations regarding optimal fiber optical sensing probes for 02 detection are addressed.