Advancing environmental sensing with tapered optical fibers: structures, challenges, and applications

Understanding biological environmental information is essential for functions related to human life activities. Tapered optical fibers reduce some of the limitations of such devices. Taper-based fiber sensor structures have excellent performance characteristics, which are attributed to their inherent properties, such as their compact size, lightweight design, and flexibility. The rapid fluorescence absorption response of tapered optical fibers has become an outstanding solution for tracking environmental changes. Data from reliable sources such as Science Direct, IEEE Xplore, Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, and Google Scholar. In this narrative review, we summarize and analyze five types of tapered fiber formats: including tapered fiber (TITF), dual-core fiber tapered (TCF), MZI interferometer, multi-tapered fiber, and peanut-shaped. A narrative evaluation of the five tapered systems is presented. In addition, four key parameters are analyzed to determine the performance of these fibers: tapered period, sensitivity, wavelength scale, and waist diameter. By evaluating these factors, we identify promising strategies to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of tapered fiber sensors and gain insights into their potential applications in next-generation sensing systems.