The Fiber Optic Interferometric Sensors, FOIS, advent has opened the door to the field application of the interferometry. FOIS allow the disconession between a critical measurement stage (the interferometer) and the measurands site. Moreover, all the information about the measurands are coded in terms of optical phase modulation. Applications and recent advances of the Fiber Optic Interferometric Sensors technology will be reviewed. Laser-based FOIS and White-Light-based FOIS are the two main classes in which the FOIS are developed. Applications range from point sensors of physical parameters (vibration, acceleration, displacement, temperature, etc.) to chemical measurement (traces of ions in water) to sensing network for the development of smart structures FOIS participated to the foundation of the guided-wave single- mode technology and they are even today an important battle-field for experimenting advanced components and architectures.
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