Optical Sensing Using Fiber-Optic Multimode Interference Devices: A Review of Nonconventional Sensing Schemes

We review fiber-based multimode interference (MMI) devices with a particular focus on optical fiber-based sensing applications. The present review complements a recently published, extensive review where the sensing of conventional physical variables such as refractive index, temperature, displacement, and strain was covered. This review focuses on MMI fiber sensors for nonconventional physical variables, including mechanical, electromagnetic, chemical, and optical, covering around fifteen years of work in the field. Finally, by the end of this paper, we also review some new trends of MMI-based schemes based on polymer fibers, for wavelength-locking applications, for retrieving the thermo-optic coefficient of liquid samples, and for measuring the dynamics of complex fluids.