Abstract
A long-period grating written in the SMF-28 fiber was heat treated at 1000 degrees C for 15 days. The spectrum of the grating shifted to longer wavelengths and the amplitude of the cladding mode resonances decreased as a result of structural relaxation. The background loss increased considerably for time longer than 200 h, and this loss is caused by devitrification of the fiber.

Abstract
In this work, an LPG-based Mach-Zehnder modal interferometer with a tapered fiber section between the two LPGs is studied as a sensing structure for measuring environmental refractive index. To interrogate this sensing device, coherence addressing and pseudo-heterodyne processing were used. A fiber taper was made between the two LPGs to improve and tailor the sensitivity of the sensor. Experimental results show that the sensitivity to external refractive index increases with the length of the taper and that the sensitivity enhancement is stronger for lower order cladding modes. © 2009 SPIE.

Abstract
In this work, interferometric sensors based on antiresonance reflecting waveguide (ARROW) fibers were developed and their performances were characterized for measurement of physical parameters, particularly strain and temperature. Two types of ARROW fibers were considered and signal demodulation was achieved using the white light interferometric technique. Application issues of sensing heads based on these fibers are also addressed. © 2009 SPIE.

Abstract
In this work, sensitivity to strain, temperature and curvature of a sensor relying on modal interferometry in hollow-core photonic crystal fibre is studied. The sensing structure is simply a piece of hollow-core fibre connected in both ends to standard single mode fibre. An interference pattern that is associated to the interference of the light that propagates in the hollow core fundamental mode with light that propagates in other modes is observed. The phase of this interference pattern changes with the measurand interaction, which is the basis for considering this structure for sensing. The phase recovery is performed using a white light interferometric technique. © 2009 SPIE.

Abstract
An optical fiber sensor for the measurement of oxygen in gaseous environments, which is based on the quenching of the fluorescence of a ruthenium complex, is presented. The sensing chemistry is immobilized in a sol-gel based solid matrix that is coated on a tapered optical fiber probe. Oxygen measurement is performed both by phase and fluorescence intensity spectroscopy. Experimental results show that the fluorescence intensity and the lifetime depend both on oxygen and temperature. A scheme for simultaneous determination of the temperature and the oxygen concentration is proposed. Temperature measurement is performed using the excitation radiation and an absorption long pass filter. Preliminary results are presented which show a temperature measurement independent of oxygen and of optical power level.

Abstract
A bulk interferometric configuration for electrical current remote sensing in high voltage environments based on the Faraday effect is described. The combination of Sagnac's reciprocal properties with a Mach-Zehnder processing interferometer in the same sensing head is used to implement serrodyne processing for current sensing. A theoretical analysis based on the Jones matrix is presented. Experimental results that validate the exploited concept are obtained, showing linearity up to 1800 A(rms) and waveform. reproduction at 50 Hz. The possibility of using the proposed interferometric concept to simultaneously fulfil the requirements associated with metering and relaying applications is also addressed.