The simple and highly sensitive measurement of the refractive index (RI) of liquids is critical for designing the optical instruments and important in biochemical sensing applications. Intensity modulation-based polymer optical fiber (POF) RI sensors have a lot of advantages including low cost, easy fabrication and operation, good flexibility, and working in the visible wavelength. In this review, recent developments of the intensity modulation POF-based RI sensors are summarized. The materials of the POF and the working principle of intensity modulation are introduced briefly. Moreover, the RI sensing performance of POF sensors with different structures including tapered, bent, and side-polished structures, among others, are presented in detail. Finally, the sensing performance for different structures of POF-based RI sensors are compared and discussed.

We demonstrate an optical fiber vector magnetic field sensor based on Mach-Zehnder interferometer by splicing a section of side-polished hollow-core fiber between two sections of single-mode fiber. As a varied magnetic field is applied to the magnetic fluid encapsulated sandwiched structure, the transmission spectra of the sensor will vary with the intensity and the direction of the magnetic field. In our experiments, at the incident light wavelength around 1510 nm, the magnetic field orientation sensitivity and intensity sensitivity are 180 pm/° and 240 pm/mT, respectively. In addition, a high contrast of about 20 dB between the signal interference dip with the noise interference dip is obtained in our experiments. The proposed all-optical fiber magnetic field sensor has the advantages of simple structure, compact size, low cost and easy fabrication.

An enhanced plastic optical fiber (POF)-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor is proposed by employing a double-sided polished structure. The sensor is fabricated by polishing two sides of the POF symmetrically along with the fiber axis, and a layer of Au film is deposited on each side of the polished region. The SPR can be excited on both polished surfaces with Au film coating, and the number of light reflections will be increased by using this structure. The simulation and experimental results show that the proposed sensor has an enhanced SPR effect. The visibility and full width at half maximum (FWHM) of spectrum can be improved for the high measured refractive index (RI). A sensitivity of 4284.8 nm/RIU is obtained for the double-sided POF-based SPR sensor when the measured liquid RI is 1.42. The proposed SPR sensor is easy fabrication and low cost, which can provide a larger measurement range and action area to the measured samples, and it has potential application prospects in the oil industry and biochemical sensing fields.

We proposed a refractive index (RI) sensor employing two twisted tapered plastic optical fibers (POFs). The tapered POFs were fabricated by a heating and drawing method and were twisted around each other to form a coupled structure. The sensor consisted of two input ports, a twisted region, and two output ports. The tapered POF could make the light couple from one POF to the other easily. The twisted tapered POFs could constitute a self-referencing sensor, and by monitoring the changes of the coupling ratio, the variations of the external medium RIs could be measured. The RI sensing performances for the sensors with different fiber diameters and twisted region lengths were studied. The sensitivities of 1700%/RIU and −3496%/RIU in the RI ranges of 1.37–1.41 and 1.41–1.44 were obtained, respectively. The sensor is a low-cost solution for liquid RI measurement, which has the features of simple structure and easy fabrication.

A high sensitivity and easily fabricated liquid level sensor based on the V-groove structure plastic optical fiber (POF) was described. In the design, the V-groove structure on the POF is produced by using a die-press-print method, which effectively reduces the complexity of the fabrication process and makes it easier for mass production of liquid level sensors. This greatly enhances the usefulness of the proposed sensor in cost effective liquid level sensing applications. The transmission characteristic of the POF could be changed when the V-groove structure was immerged or emerged by the rising or falling liquid. The liquid level sensing performances for the sensor probes with different structural parameters were investigated, and the sensor performances for the liquids with different refractive indices and the sensor dynamic response were also tested. Experimental results show that the sensor’s sensitivity can reach 0.0698 mm⁻¹, with a resolution of 2.5 mm. Results also show that the sensor has a fast response time of 920 ms.

In this work, a plastic optical fiber (POF) based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor is proposed and demonstrated for simultaneous measurement of refractive index (RI) and liquid level. The sensor probe is fabricated by polishing the POF and drilling several micro-holes with equal pitch along the fiber axial, after depositing a layer of gold film on the polished region, the SPR probe is obtained. The effects of the micro-hole on the sensing performance are investigated and the structural parameters of the micro hole are optimized. Experimental results show that the changes of the liquid RI can be detected by monitoring the wavelength position of the SPR peak, and the liquid level can be measured by monitoring the deepness of the SPR peak. An RI sensitivity of 2024.41 nm/RIU was obtained in the RI range of 1.335-1.40, and a resolution of 5 mm and measurement range of 25 mm for liquid level measurement were achieved for the probe. The proposed sensor is compact in size and has a very small cross sensitivity for the RI and liquid level measurement, which is useful in the biomedical and industrial sensing fields.