Chemically Modified Optical Fibers in Advanced Technology: an Overview

Abstract

In recent years, chemically modified optical fibers have widely used for development of several advanced chemical and biosensors, biomedical technology and environmental monitoring. The chemically modified optical fiber bears several valuable properties like energy loss, catalytic behaviour, refractive index, and mechanical strength to advance the optical fiber technology. In this article, we reviewed the chemically-modified optical fiber and their applications in different optical fiber-based technologies. The basics of optical fiber and their modification are discussed along with the adopted methodologies. The advancements in different optical fiber based technologies viz sensing, imaging, tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, photodynamic therapy, optogenics, surgery and environmental monitoring are discussed in the light of the contribution of chemically modified optical fibers. In conclusion, success and challenges for the use of chemically modified-optical fiber are presented on the basis of existing literature.