Most impressive is the fact that 99 percent of all lasers sold worldwide are diodes. The statement was made in Paoli's paper from SPIE Proceedings Volume 3000. The diode laser is truly becoming the world's ubiquitous source of laser light. Papers on fiber optic sensors dominate this volume, and feature applications by the U.S. and French navies, including liquid detection and temperature measurement, and linear and rotational position sensing.
New technologies cover interferometry and modulation spectroscopy.
Printing applications are included, involving multiple-channel writing devices, and the entertainment industry is also represented. Medical and telecommunications applications are covered in other volumes of SPIE Proceedings. In this abbreviated article, we look now at a paper on fiber optic sensors. The source can be either a light emitting diode or a laser, and the detector is typically a conventional photodiode. The sensing element can take on many forms, but is a passive silicon-based device that modulates incoming light from the source.