This paper presents an experimental study on influence of input light polarization on the spectral characteristics of a fibre twist sensor based on Tilted Fiber Bragg Grating (TFBG) with simultaneous application of bending to an optical fibre. The application of proposed measurement stand could provide the ability of transforming the bending to a displacement. The twist measurement was performed by tuning of the sensor illuminating light polarization angle. The spectral parameters of selected cladding mode which are sensitive to the rotation of input light polarization angle have been shown. This paper shows the characteristics of transmittivity and wavelength shift for an incident high-order cladding mode measured with different curvatures of fibre. The dependency of selected cladding mode spectral parameters related with the twist measurement on the influence of temporary bending has been shown. The measurements were performed for two positions of sensing structure refractive index perturbations in relation to the bending direction plane. The experimental results show that the direction of TFBG structure bending has a small influence on the stability of spectral parameters characteristic for twist measurement, assuming that the bending direction is fixed while measurement.

Detection of explosives vapors is an extremely difficult task. The sensitivity of currently constructed detectors is often insufficient. The paper presents a description of an explosive vapors concentrator that improves the detection limit of some explosives detectors. These detectors have been developed at the Institute of Optoelectronics. The concentrator is especially dedicated to operate with nitrogen oxide detectors. Preliminary measurements show that using the concentrator, the recorded amount of nitrogen dioxide released from a 0.5 ng sample of TNT increases by a factor of approx. 20. In the concentrator an induction heater is applied. Thanks to this and because of the miniaturization of the container with an adsorbing material (approx. 1 cm3), an extremely high rate of temperature growth is achieved (up to 500 °C within approx. 25 s). The concentration process is controlled by a microcontroller. Compact construction and battery power supply provide a possibility of using the concentrator as a portable device.

The paper analyses the operation of different types of electronic colour sensors based on the light spectrum analysis. The application goal was to detect the type of the airport lamp based on differences in colour components of the light emitted by luminaires with specific spectral characteristics. Recognition of airport lamps is based on the analysis of the light spectrum. Proposed solution allows for an automatic software selection of appropriate conversion factors and comparison with specific standards necessary for this type of measurements. Various types of sensors were discussed and the AS7262 sensor was examined in detail. The colour sensor and the light intensity sensor were used in the mobile control device for examining elevated airport lamps and in the measurement platform for quality testing of embedded airport lamps. Two additional aspects were investigated: 1) influence of an additional acrylic glass cover; 2) distance between airport lamps and the spectrum sensor.

The paper presents a design and performance analysis of a photosensor device enabling the measurement of the visible light illuminance. The sensor is designed for use in the light metering matrix of a mobile measurement platform allowing the correct operation of in-pavement airport lamps. This kind of control can be required by regulations and must meet the standards defined by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). An important assumption of the solution was to obtain the highest possible speed of a measurement acquisition so that the control process would take place in a relatively short time. The proposed module concept is dedicated to the task of testing the quality of airport lamps, due to the characteristics of the photosensitive elements matching the light beams emitted by luminaries. The device is based on a VTP1220FBH photodiode and an ATmega328P microcontroller, which, in addition to the analogue-to-digital conversion and correction, sends the results back to the master unit via the I ²C bus.

Optoelectronic technology plays an important role in medical diagnosis. In the paper a review of some optoelectronic sensors for invasive and non-invasive human health test is presented. The main attention is paid on their basic operation principle and medical usefulness. The paper presents also own research related to developing of tools for human breath analysis. Breath sample unit and three gaseous biomarkers analyzer employing laser absorption spectroscopy designed for clinical diagnostics were described. The analyzer is equipped with sensors for CO, CH₄ and NO detection. The sensors operate using multi-pass spectroscopy with wavelength modulation method (MUPASS-WMS) and cavity enhanced spectroscopy (CEAS).