Laser Sensing Technologies

Abstract

In this paper, the laser sensing technologies towards the twenty-first century are discussed. They are classifiedinto the following four topics: (1) practical fiber-optic interferometicsensors, (2) distributed and pointsensor-multiplexed fiber-optic sensors, (3) parallel sensing technologies, and (4) detection technologies for ultraweak light and sensing technologies using ultra short optical pulses.It is also emphasized that the further developments of new class of optical components such as integratedoptics, optoelectronic integrated circuits and functional optical fibers are requrired for the sophisticatedlaser sensing systems described above.