Recent Advances in Optical Fiber Enabled Radiation Sensors

Abstract

Optical fibers are being widely utilized as radiation sensors and dosimeters. Benefiting from the rapidly growing optical fiber manufacturing and material engineering, advanced optical fibers have evolved significantly by using functional structures and materials, promoting their detection accuracy and usage scenarios as radiation sensors. This paper summarizes the current development of optical fiber-based radiation sensors. The sensing principles of both extrinsic and intrinsic optical fiber radiation sensors, including radiation-induced attenuation (RIA), radiation-induced luminescence (RIL), and fiber grating wavelength shifting (RI-GWS), were analyzed. The relevant advanced fiber materials and structures, including silica glass, doped silica glasses, polymers, fluorescent and scintillator materials, were also categorized and summarized based on their characteristics. The fabrication methods of intrinsic all-fiber radiation sensors were introduced, as well. Moreover, the applicable scenarios from medical dosimetry to industrial environmental monitoring were discussed. In the end, both challenges and perspectives of fiber-based radiation sensors and fiber-shaped radiation dosimeters were presented.

Keywords: multi-material fiber; optical fiber radiation sensor; radiation-induced attenuation; radiation-induced grating wavelength shift; radiation-induced luminescence; single crystal optical fiber.

Figure 1

Ionizing and non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation.

Figure 2

Sensing principles of extrinsic and intrinsic optical fiber radiation sensors. (a) Radiation-induced attenuation based optical fiber radiation sensor. (b) Radiation-induced luminescence based optical fiber radiation sensor with extrinsic scintillator. (c) Radiation-induced luminescence based optical fiber radiation sensor with a scintillating fiber core.

Figure 3

Schematic of widely used fiber radiation sensor based on the RIA principle. (a,b) silica and doped silica optical fibers. (c,d) PMMA and doped functional polymer optical fibers.

Figure 4

Schematic of widely used fiber radiation sensor based on the RIL principle. (a) Scintillator-connected optical fibers radiation sensor. (b) Scintillator-covered-optical fibers radiation sensor. (c) Limited length RIL radiation fiber sensor. (d) All-fiber RIL radiation fiber sensor.

Figure 5

Schematic of fiber grating for radiation-induced wavelength shifting sensing.

Figure 6

Schematic and photographs of micro pulling down set-up. (a,b) BGO and YAlO3 crystal fibers grown by micro pulling down technique. Reprinted with permission from ref. [91,99]. Copyright 2009 and 2007, Elsevier B.V.

Figure 7

Schematic of multi-material fiber thermal drawing method and in-fiber thermal treatment processing. (a) Schematic of advanced fiber thermal drawing process. (b) In-fiber microstructure generation process and material engineering process.

Figure 8

All-fiber radiation sensors. (a) 0.05% Ce-doped optical fibers before (on the left) and after 1 kGy irradiation (on the right). Reprinted with permissions from ref. [101]. Copyright 2018, Optical Society of America. (b) The cross-section of a Li-glass multicore fiber, and the polished faceplate surface of a multicore array. Reprinted with permissions from ref. [100]. Copyright 2019, IEEE. (c) Pr-doped silica scintillating fibers and faceplate. Reprinted with permissions from ref. [70]. Copyright 2017, Elsevier B.V. (d) LYSO:Ce core silica cladding scintillating fibers. Reprinted with permissions from ref. [102]. Copyright 2020, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, Germany.

Figure 9

All-in-fiber germanium-platinum optoelectronic sensing units. (a) Multimaterial fiber drawn by fiber thermal drawing process. (b) Cross-section of germanium-platinum optoelectronic fiber. (c) Continuous germanium and platinum fiber cores (top, before breakup) and assembled germanium-platinum micron functional units by thermal induced in-fiber capillary instabilities (bottom, after breakup). Reprinted with permissions from ref. [106]. Copyright 2017, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, Germany.

Figure 10

Environment monitoring by silica fiber-based thermoluminescence dosimetry. (a) Sampling locations off-site of the rare-earths processing facility, Pahang, Malaysia. (b) Activity concentration of elements recorded by the Ge-doped collapsed photonic crystal fiber. Reprinted with permissions from ref. [121]. Copyright 2017, IOP Publishing Ltd.

Figure 11

The optical fiber radiation dosimeter for radiation monitoring in space. (a) Testbed with sensing fibers for NST-2 mission. Reprinted with permissions from ref. [145]. Copyright 1969, IEEE. (b) Structure of a scintillating fiber stack. Reprinted with permissions from ref. [147]. Copyright 2001, Elsevier Science B.V.

Figure 12

Ge-doped optical fiber for in-vitro. (a) Ge-doped optical fibers and LiF TLDs (highlighted) in 3D view. (b) Numbers correspond to the positions of Ge-doped optical fibers and LiF TLDs in a Rando-phantom CT slice. Reprinted with permissions from ref. [132]. Copyright 2010, Elsevier B.V.