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.

Abstract
In this study an optical fibre sensor system was conceived for simultaneous detection of the strain and the acoustic emission due to damage. It consists of a fibre Bragg grating and a Fabry-Perot interferometer. For the interrogation of the Fabry-Perot cavity, an innovative low cost process based on the generation of two quadrature phase-shifted signals using two fibre Bragg gratings was implemented, allowing the recovery of the change in the cavity length. An automated processing system, based on Kohonen's self-organizing maps is also presented, for future classification of the acoustic emission waves detected by the optic fibre sensor.

Abstract
We present and demonstrate a high-resolution absolute-distance measurement system based on multiple-wavelength interferometry. The information on a cavity length is obtained by sampling a fringe of its spectral response at different wavelengths. This is achieved by simultaneously tuning multiple fiber Bragg gratings. For a two wavelength system, an unambiguous measurement range of 262 µm was obtained with a resolution of 14.3 nm.

Abstract
A sensing head for simultaneous measurement of temperature and strain is presented and analyzed. The proposed configuration is based on the combination of two Bragg gratings, written in different fibres and with different reflectivities, to form a single signature with a reflected step spectrum profile. By measuring the changes in the peak wavelength and spectral width of this signature, resolutions of 0.65 degreesC/rootHz and +/- 2.55 muepsilon/rootHz were achieved for temperature and strain measurements, respectively.

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
The development of fiber optical sensor in which the sensing head comprises a long period fiber grating (LPG) whose attenuation peak varies as function of its bending was investigated. Various arc-induced LPGs were fabricated in the spectral region of the optical source. The spectral power evolution was taken from a streched to a bending position with the optical spectrum analyzer. The developed fiber optical sensor demonstrated its capability of micro-displacement measurement.