
Elfed Lewis- PhD
- Professor at University of Limerick
Elfed Lewis
- PhD
- Professor at University of Limerick
About
511
Publications
186,990
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
6,848
Citations
Introduction
Elfed Lewis (BEng (Hons) in Electrical and Electronic Eng. (1981) & PhD (1987)) (Univ. of Liverpool) joined Liverpool J. M. Univ. (1989) initiating a research activity in Optical Fibre Sensors (OFS). In 1996 he joined University of Limerick and is Prof. & Director of the OFSRC authoring 200+ journal papers. He received the 2024 InstMC Finkelstein Award for excellence in International Research & 2023 UL President's Research Excellence Impact award. Also Fulbright Scholar (CREOL inst., 2008).
Current institution
Publications
Publications (511)
Fibre optic sensors (FOSs) have developed as a transformative technology in healthcare, often offering unparalleled accuracy and sensitivity in monitoring various physiological and biochemical parameters. Their applications range from tracking vital signs to guiding minimally invasive surgeries, enabling advancements in medical diagnostics and trea...
The manipulation of laser modes in whispering gallery mode (WGM) lasers has been extensively explored, particularly at near-infrared wavelengths. Extending these efforts into the mid-infrared region has substantial value, given the range of applications possible in that region. Here, we demonstrate singlemode lasing emission at 2 μm in a thulium-do...
Fiber optic sensors (FOSs) have developed as a transformative technology in healthcare, often offering unparalleled accuracy and sensitivity in monitoring various physiological and biochemical parameters. Their applications range from tracking vital signs to guiding minimally invasive surgeries, enabling advancements in medical diagnostics and trea...
Objective. Optical fibre dosimeters (OFDs) offer great promise for real-time in vivo dose measurement in radiation-based treatment modalities such as radiotherapy and brachytherapy. This is attributed to their many useful qualities such as high spatial resolution and sensitivity. However, there are several requirements that an optical fibre dosimet...
Optical fiber X-ray sensors have the potential to realize real-time dose monitoring of precision radiotherapy. However, an over-response phenomenon can occur when using an optical fiber sensor (OFXS) filled with inorganic scintillator (Gd2O2S:Tb) to measure the off-axis ratio (OAR) curve. The aim of this paper is to study the mechanism responsible...
In this Letter, we demonstrate a micro-displacement sensor based on a balloon-shaped fiber surface nanoscale axial photonic (SNAP) microresonator. The SNAP microresonator is fabricated by fiber bending to introduce nanoscale effective radius variations (ERVs) on the fiber surface. Displacement measurement based on the balloon-shaped SNAP microreson...
In this Letter, we demonstrate a sensitivity-enhanced strain sensor based on a shape-modulated multimode fiber (MMF). In contrast to conventional single-mode–multimode–single-mode (SMS) fiber structures, which typically contain a single cylindrical homogeneous MMF section, the shape of the MMF section in this investigation is modulated by lateral o...
A broadband flat response high sensitivity Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) acceleration sensor is reported that solves the problem that the sensitivity of a vibration sensor is normally constrained by its measurement frequency range. Two sets of cantilever beams with different resonance frequencies and one set of cross beams are used to construct a uniqu...
A method to optimize the arrangement of an fiber Bragg grating (FBG) array is described to address the need to improve the accuracy of impact localization for aerospace vehicles. The sensitive area of the FBG, which is approximately elliptical, is analyzed using finite element simulation and experimental measurement. Based on this analysis, three o...
The integration of artificial intelligence and distributed fiber optic acoustic sensing technology(DAS) has yielded remarkable results in recent years; however, some application scenarios face the challenge of acquiring an adequate amount of data for higher network accuracy. To address this issue, we propose a decoupling parallel convolutional neur...
We propose and demonstrate a microbubble resonator combined with a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) for simultaneous measurement of gas pressure and temperature. The approach used allows for very close proximity (<200 µm) between the FBG and the microbubble resonator. The microbubble resonator is fabricated in a section of hollow-core fiber (HCF), spliced...
A perceived need exists for real-time dosimeters offering pulse-by-pulse temporal resolution to validate the delivery of the prescribed dose from clinical electron linear accelerators (linacs). In the case of linacs working at conventional (100–600 cGy/min) dose rates and operating in the bremsstrahlung mode, radioluminescence-emitting Ge-doped sil...
A unique side-polished balloon shaped heterocore structure plastic optical fibre (POF) sensor for real-time measurement of very low to high ethanol concentration in water is reported. The sensor is designed as a large core-small core-large core heterocore structure where small core fibre (SCF) acts as a sensing region, whereas large core fibre (LCF...
In this Letter, we demonstrate a high-sensitivity vector bend sensor based on a fiber directional coupler. The fiber directional coupler is composed of two parallel waveguides inscribed within a no-core fiber (NCF) by a femtosecond laser. Since the two written waveguides have closely matched refractive indices and geometries, the transmission spect...
A novel long period grating (LPG) inscribed balloon-shaped heterocore-structured plastic optical fibre (POF) sensor is described and experimentally demonstrated for real-time measurement of the ultra-low concentrations of ethanol in microalgal bioethanol production applications. The heterocore structure is established by coupling a 250 μm core diam...
In radiation measurement, optical fiber sensors (OFS) have many advantages compared to commercial dosimeters, including high spatial resolution. Due to the OFS measurement principle (fluorescence), the recorded measurement results differ from the standard dose value, such as that obtained using an ionization chamber. In this study, a physical corre...
Time-resolved radiation dosimetry is an important factor in ensuring dose delivery during radiotherapy is within the prescribed doses for treatment. One method for time-resolved radiation dosimetry is by radioluminescence (RL) measurement technique using doped-silica optical fibre scintillators. The benefits of RL measurement technique include the...
A femtosecond (fs) laser fabricated refractive index (RI) modulated multimode fiber (MMF) for high sensitivity vector bending measurement is presented. A fs laser-induced local positive RI modulation in the MMF core results in a non-circular symmetric RI distribution of the MMF. Such a RI-modulated MMF used in single-mode-multimode-single-mode (SMS...
In this article, a novel long-period fiber grating (LPFG) sensor based on a core-cladding misalignment structure is described. The LPFG consists of multiple short-length singlemode fiber (SMF) segments joined with core-cladding misalignment splicing. Due to the refractive index (RI) difference between the core and the cladding, periodic RI modulati...
The spectral characteristics of the relative intensity noise (RIN) of two amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) sources are experimentally measured. An Er-doped fiber superfluorescent source (EDF-SFS) is investigated and compared with a super-luminescent diode (SLD) source, using a simple tunable fiber Bragg grating filter-based system. Experimental...
The torsion measurement and torsion direction discrimination characteristics of a multimode fiber (MMF) geometry in a singlemode-multimode-singlemode (SMS) fiber structure are investigated theoretically and experimentally. Three different geometries of MMFs, including circular symmetric MMF, axisymmetric MMF, and asymmetric MMF were fabricated base...
A range of optical fibre-based sensors for the measurement of ethanol, primarily in aqueous solution, have been developed and are reviewed here. The sensing approaches can be classified into four groups according to the measurement techniques used, namely absorption (or absorbance), external interferometric, internal fibre grating and plasmonic sen...
Measurements using an Optical Fiber OFS including an inorganic scintillator placed on the surface of a phantom show that the particle energy distribution inside the phantom remains unchanged. The backscattered intensity measured using an Optical Fiber Sensor (OFS) exhibits a linear relationship with the total radiation dose delivered to the phantom...
This Special Issue captures a significant portion of the current sensors research excellence in Ireland [...]
A novel all-optical modulator based on a microfibre coil resonator (MCR) functionalized using MXene is reported. The MCR was manufactured by winding a tapered fibre on a polycarbonate (PC) resin cylinder with low refractive index to support the microfibre, which also forms a fluidic channel coil. The MXene dispersion was injected into the channel t...
Composite crystals are the key component of high-power solid-state lasers. The bonding interfacial loss of composite crystal slabs is a critical parameter to evaluate the quality of the bonding interface. A distributed method based on optical low-coherence domain reflectometry is proposed to measure the bonding interfacial loss. Distance-related re...
An ultra-compact in-core-parallel-written fiber Bragg grating (FBG) and Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) for simultaneous measurement of strain and temperature is described. The FBG and MZI are written spatially parallel in the same section of fiber core using a femtosecond laser, forming an ultra-compact device, which is different from the previo...
The use of optical fiber probe in two-phase flow measurements is very frequently encountered, especially in the applications of chemical engineering and petroleum industries. In this work, the influence of bubble piercing signals caused by bubble deformation is studied experimentally using a laboratory-prepared wedge-shaped fiber probe in a lab-sca...
A Light Talk on Industry 4.0 Prospects of Optical Fibre Sensing for Biofuel Processing Industry.
Background: Cesium-137 is one of those man-made radioactive nuclides that
results from human activities including open air nuclear weapons testing,
nuclear accidents, operation of nuclear reactors and has a relative long halflife,
higher water solubility, high fission yield, relatively high volatility and a
close physic-chemical similarity to potas...
A U-bend POF Sensor is a potential solution for real-time monitoring of the production of biofuels, such as bioethanol even at the very low-level initial concentration of product which can occur during the initial production stage via recombinant Cyanobacteria strains such as Synechocystis PCC6803. The sensor demonstrates excellent repeatability an...
The purpose of this article is to explore the cause of the over-response phenomenon of fiber x-ray sensor. The sensor is based on a length of PMMA fiber, whose end is filled with the scintillation material Gd 2 O 2 S:Tb. The Monte Carlo simulation software GEANT4 uses the phase space file provided by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), b...
A conical tip–shaped plastic optical fiber sensor for gas-liquid flow measurement is described. Experimental results show that a distinctive spike signal occurs before the output signal when using a conventional conical fiber probe, whereas this spike signal was greatly suppressed when a cleaved probe is used. A full simulation is implemented based...
Fiber optic sensors have contributed a huge market for sensing some quantity, typically temperature or mechanical strain, and even for displacements, vibrations, pressure, acceleration, rotations, or concentrations of chemical species. The application in defense and engineering remains the largest market for fiber optic sensors (FOSs). The success...
A algorithm of obtaining absolute dose at each tissue depth only by the mathematical calculation of formula is reported. The algorithm is based on integrating the energy flux of the electron generated by X-ray in the range of irradiation field, and the energy spectrum of ray and the secondary scattered ray are considered in this process. In this al...
This article proposes a novel fiber optic LSPR sensor system based on trimetallic Au@AgPt core-shell nanospheres for the accurate measurement of Cu ²⁺ , achieving a good linear response in the range of 10 ⁻¹⁵ - 10 ⁻¹¹ mol/L.
Nickel disulfide (NiS2) has recently been found to possess strong nonlinear saturable absorption properties. This feature is highly attractive for nonlinear photonics applications. Ultrafast pulse generation is successfully demonstrated in this article for both Ytterbium- and Erbium-doped fibre lasers using micro-fibre deposited nickel disulfide (N...
This article explains about the development of an optical sensor system to detect and measure ammonia emission in the agricultural field. At initial stage, an open path optical technique where a cylindrical chamber is used to detect low concentration of ammonia in the UV region. The methodology describing the working principle of the sensor and the...
The use of optical fiber X-ray sensors is of great significance in X-ray detection. To reduce the influence of background noise attributed to sources such as Cerenkov radiation, the response of a plain (no scintillator material added) optical fiber to the X-ray radiation is investigated. The percentage dose-depth (PDD) of plain optical fibers with...
The release of natural radioactive materials with the emission of fly ash as a result of coal burning in power generation plants is considered amongst the sources that elevate the technologically environmental radioactivity level. This research mainly concerns the assessment of various radiological parameters including excess lifetime cancer risk d...
A laboratory-prepared wedge-shaped fiber probe using step-index multimode plastic optical fiber was described and tested in a lab-scale gas–liquid flow generator. A three-dimensional model was established in order to fully simulate the process of bubble piercing by the optical fiber probe. A theoretical analysis of the luminous intensity distributi...
Intense mid-infrared emission at 3.9 µm in ${{\rm Ho}^{3 +}}$ -doped ZBYA glasses with direct upper laser level ( ${{\rm Ho}^{3 +}}:{^5}{\rm I}_5$ ) pumping at a wavelength of 888 nm is reported for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. Spectroscopic parameters were determined using the Judd–Ofelt theory and the measured absorption spectrum...
A low-cost optical fibre sensor based on two cascaded balloon-like bent fibre (BBF) structures for simultaneous displacement and temperature measurement is reported. The sensor is fabricated by cascading two balloon-like bent single-mode fibres (SMFs) which with different bending radii, generating two separate interference dips within a limited wav...
A reliable, accurate and in-vivo dosimetry system for measuring the radiation dose and profiling the X-ray beam during radiotherapy is reported. Its dynamic range is investigated using an accurately controlled pulsed light emitting diode (LED) system. Highly resolved temporal analog and digital signals were captured from the analog and digital outp...
This article presents for the first time an ultrasensitive localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) sensor system based on multimode-singlemode-multimode fiber (MMF-SMF-MMF) structure for the accurate measurement of copper (II) Ion (Cu²⁺). Citrate-stabilized [email protected] core-shell nanospheres (NSs) with a rough AgPt alloy outer shell were s...
In this article, a high sensitivity, low temperature-crosstalk strain sensor based on a microsphere embedded Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) is reported and experimentally demonstrated. The sensor is fabricated by embedding a microsphere inside a tapered hollow-core fiber (HCF) whose ends are enclosed by two standard single-mode fibers (SMFs). The...
A novel Fabry-Perot sensor, comprised a glass sphere bonded to a capillary and singlemode fiber, is proposed for refractive index sensing. It is characterized in air, water, ethanol, isopropanol, and glycerol.
An angled polished multimode (APM) fibre structure is described for the first time, to the best our knowledge, and its polarization dependence investigated theoretically and experimentally. Two angled planes are established in the multimode fibre (MMF) section of a single-mode-multimode-single-mode (SMS) fibre structure using the fibre side-polishi...
Lead germanate glass samples with different Er3+/Yb3+ concentrations co-doped were prepared and the color variation of the up-conversion emissions in these glasses was observed using 980 nm laser pump power. A practical optical integrated device based on Er3+-Yb3+ co-doped lead germanate glass microsphere and a special fiber structure, consisting o...
About 87% of the total dose received by the general public is due to naturally existing radioactive nuclides. Long-term exposure to the relatively long half-life radioactive elements (including Uranium, Thorium, and Potassium) and their decay products pose severe health threats to the population including lung cancer. The related available data has...
This chapter provides expert coverage of the physical properties of new noncrystalline solids—tellurite glass and the latest laser applications of the material—offering insights into innovative applications for laser and sensing devices, among others. In particular, there is a focus on specialty optical fibers, supercontinuum generation and laser d...
A range of new 2D materials have recently been reported, including topological insulators, transition-metal dichalcogenides, black phosphorus, MXenes, and metal-organic frameworks, which have demonstrated high optical nonlinearity and Pauli blocking for widespread use as saturable absorbers in pulsed lasers. 2D materials are emerging as a promising...
Background: The aim & objective of this study is to evaluate the health hazards of the general public from the existence of the radioactive nuclides in the soil of North Waziristan and to establish a reference line for future work on radioactivity concentration in this locality. Methods and Materials: A highly background radiation shielded HPGe sys...
A single-mode–multimode–single-mode (SMS) optical fiber-based displacement sensing system mounted on an Ilizarov transverse tibial bone transport device for microcirculation reconstruction is reported. Wide-range displacement is approximated as a uniform extension of a spring that is connected to an SMS optical fiber structure acting as the displac...
This paper presents the development of an extrinsic optical fibre sensor for continuous measurement of the human spine bending movement based on intensity modulation technique. Using the investigated sensor configuration, the bending angle was measurable in both flexion and extension direction with a maximum range of motion of 18° and -10°, respect...
The system presented in this paper demonstrates how a novel fibre optic based sensing platform, capable of detecting minute changes in the level of impurity in a liquid, can be incorporated onto a Mote based platform enabling real time monitoring of a body of water. How these features can be used to detect a representative sample of chlorophyll wit...
Wheat flour is a dietary staple of Pakistani population. This study is mainly focused on the measurement of radioactivity concentration due to naturally occurring radioactive nuclides, uranium-238, thorium-232, potassium-40, and the corresponding hazardous radiological parameters, radium equivalent dose (Raeq), annual effective dose, internal hazar...
We propose and demonstrate a miniature Fabry–Perot interferometer (FPI) based on a movable microsphere reflector. The movable microsphere acts as a good reflector, with the reflections occurring at the spliced single-mode fiber/hollow-core fiber interface and the surface of a microsphere, resulting in two-beam interference. The silica microsphere i...
The power coupling ratio between step-index multimode fibers caused by combined transversal and angular misalignment is calculated. A theoretical description of the coupling efficiency between two optical fibers based on geometrical optics is provided. The theoretical calculations are collaborated by experiments, determining the power coupling rati...
Simultaneous 1.50 μm, 1.84 μm and 2.08 μm laser emission is observed in a Ho³⁺/Tm³⁺ co-doped ZrF4–BaF2–YF3–AlF3 (ZBYA) fluoride glass microsphere when pumped using a 793 nm laser diode. The ZBYA fluoride glass microsphere was prepared using a CO2 laser heating method and whispering-gallery modes (WGM) were excited when the pump light was coupled us...
Type I fiber Bragg grating (FBG) regeneration is studied in terms of refractive index modulation (RIM) and characterized using optical low-coherent reflectometry (OLCR) for the first time. Highly resolved spatial OLCR results are used to demonstrate a uniform RIM regeneration ratio along an apodized type I the FBG during the regeneration process. R...
Dissipative soliton generation is successfully demonstrated in an Erbium-doped mode-locked fibre laser using Tin Disulfide (SnS2) as a saturable absorber in the near-zero dispersion regime. A stable dissipative soliton pulse train operating at a wavelength of 1560 nm is successfully obtained with a 32 nm FWHM power. The 152 fs pulses were produced...
Up-conversion luminescence and C-band microsphere laser output is reported for an
$\text{Er}^{3+}$
-doped
$\text{ZrF}_4 \text{-BaF}_2 \text{-YF}_3 \text{-AlF}_3$
(ZBYA) fluorozirconate glass microsphere. The microsphere was fabricated by heating a ZBYA glass filament using a
$\text{CO}_2$
laser beam. The fabrication process accurately and rep...
A bismuth‐doped compound glass‐based microsphere laser is reported. The fluorescence luminescence of the bismuth‐doped compound glass is measured over an ultra‐broad wavelength range of 1100 to 1700 nm excited using an 808 nm pumping source. The glass microsphere was fabricated using a CO2 laser heating the fiber near its melting temperature, and w...
Inorganic scintillating material used in optical fibre sensors (OFS) when used as dosimeters for measuring percentage depth dose (PDD) characteristics have exhibited significant differences when compared to those measured using an ionization chamber (IC), which is the clinical gold standard for quality assurance (QA) assessments. The percentage dif...
A novel fiber-optic refractive index (RI) and temperature sensor based on a multimode-single-mode-multimode fiber (MMF-SMF-MMF) structure coated with graphene-metal hybrid films was proposed and investigated. The surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-based RI sensitivity is improved by the addition of the graphene layer above or below the gold coating of...
A SENSOR FOR COMBINED TEMPERATURE, PRESSURE, AND REFRACTIVE INDEX DETECTION
Directly pumped single-mode and multimode Ho
<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3+</sup>
-doped sol-gel silica microspheres lasing at
$2.0~\mu \text{m}$
are observed, when an 1150-nm fiber Raman laser pump is used in a conventional microfiber-microsphere coupling method. Experimental res...
Q-switched pulse laser generation is successfully demonstrated in both Erbium-doped fibre laser (EDFL) and Thulium-doped fibre laser (TDFL) cavities by employing Nickel disulfide (NiS2) as a saturable absorber (SA). Q-switched pulse laser operation at 1.55 μm and 2.0 μm is obtained at low pump power levels of 37 mW and 48 mW, respectively. For the...
A novel robust compact light emitting diode (LED) based laboratory simulator system for mimicking the output from an optical fibre sensor used to detect therapeutic X-ray pulses from a clinical linear accelerator (linac) is described and performance characterised with reference to real clinical data. The purpose of configuring the LED system is to...
The use of tin disulfide (SnS2) as a candidate material for saturable absorption in nonlinear optical devices is investigated in this article. A dual-wavelength soliton mode-locked fiber laser is demonstrated using a fabricated SnS2 thin film as a saturable absorber within an erbium-doped fiber laser cavity. The laser generates two peaks centered a...
A novel, to the best of our knowledge, in-fiber temperature sensor based on green up-conversion (UC) luminescence in an co-doped tellurite glass microsphere is described. The tellurite glass microsphere is located firmly inside a suspended tri-core hollow-fiber (STCHF) structure. The pump light launched via a single-mode fiber (SMF) is passed throu...
A black phosphorus (BP) functionalized optical fiber sensor based on a microfiber coil resonator (MCR) for Pb2+ ion detection in an aquatic environment is presented and experimentally demonstrated. The MCR-BP sensor is manufactured by winding a tapered microfiber on a hollow rod composed of a low-refractive-index polycarbonate (PC) resin with the B...
This edition of Around the World of IoT presents a summary of the IEEE World Forum on Internet of Things (WF-IoT 2019) that was held in April in Limerick, Ireland. Arriving at its fi fth edition, the WF-IoT is the fl agship event organized by the IEEE IoT Initiative, a multi-society activity gathering 20 IEEE member societies/ councils. Due to its...
Radiation dosimetry plays a crucial role in the Quality Assurance (QA) in radiotherapy. To date this is limited to monitoring the overall dose over the complete beam time and so there is limited information on the actual beam quality. An optical fibre sensor is developed based on cerium doped yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG:Ce) scintillator. The tempo...
A regenerated fiber Bragg grating (RFBG) in silica fiber was used to observe the viscous relaxation process of the host silica fiber at high temperatures of around 1000 °C. Two factors, preannealing time and loaded tension, which affect viscous relaxation, were observed. When an RFBG is stretched after a longer preannealing, the measured viscosity...
A temperature-insensitive refractometer based on a refractive index (RI)-modulated singlemode-multimode-singlemode (RMSMS) fibre structure is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In this investigation, a combination of no-core fibre (NCF) and multimode fibre (MMF) regions provides an RI modulation region due to the difference in RI between the...
The paper describes a multimode-interference-effect-based single-mode–multimode–single-mode (SMS) fiber optic sensing system for wide-range displacement monitoring on an Ilizarov orthopedic external fixation device. Displacement measurement is implemented as the uniform extension of a spring, which is connected to an SMS optical fiber displacement...
p> Cr<sup>3+</sup>-Yb<sup>3+</sup> codoped bulk glass-ceramics containing KZnF<sub>3</sub> nanocrystals are fabricated by thermal treatment of cast glass samples and characterized by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The luminescent properties of the glass and glass ceramic are investigated from the measured photoluminescence...
Figure 1(c) in [Y. Wang, Optics Express 26, 1910 (2018)] contains an error and is corrected in this erratum.
A novel design of nested optical fiber based multiple knot resonators is presented. The design consists of three knot resonators, two of which share a significant fraction of their optical path. The relationship between the knots’ diameter ratio and the transmission spectrum is investigated. The output spectrum is theoretically analyzed using trans...