Javier Hervás Peralta

Optical sensors are photonic devices sensitive to different magnitudes that are used precisely to measure, in an absolute or a relative way, these magnitudes. These optical sensors are nowadays used to measure temperature, pressure, strain, humidity or the presence of a particular gas. In the past few decades a multitude of photonic sensors and different interrogation techniques have been developed, which had a great impact in dozens of different fields. One of the best examples is civil architecture, in which photonic sensors play a fundamental role in order to monitor the condition of the structures.

Despite of the good results showed by photonic sensors, the interrogation techniques used show different drawbacks. A large measurement time, low resolution or great complexity are some of them. In this doctoral thesis the design and characterization of a set of different photonic sensors based on the already known fiber Bragg gratings, along with the implementation of new interrogation techniques, are used in order to eliminate or at least reduce these problems. The interrogation techniques developed in this work are based on Microwave Photonics techniques, in which the interaction between optical and electrical signals is used to detect in this case the changes in a particular magnitude.

The techniques showed in this work have been designed in order to be as versatile and scalable as possible to have the opportunity to adapt to any requirement in different scenarios. In this work techniques that are able to interrogate hundreds or even thousands of sensors with great sensitivity and resolution can be found in addition to techniques that are developed to interrogate individual sensors with an enormous sensitivity. The work carried out in collaboration with the Swedish research institute ACREO, based on the development of an electric field sensor based on poled fibers together with FBGs is also present.