Calibration in the Fiber Optic Region of the Near-Infrared

Abstract

Chemical sensing in remote, hostile environments is possible with optical fiber technology. Telecommunications optical fiber transmits light in the near-infrared region. The least amount of attenuation of transmitted power is between 1050 nm and 1600 nm. It is a natural step to apply near-infrared analysis techniques to data remotely collected over optical fibers. A feasibility study is conducted to see how well calibration techniques, Multiple Linear Regression with either Step-up search or All Possible Combinations search, perform in the fiber optic region of the near-infrared. Calibration in the 1131–1531 nm region is compared to calibration in the 1131–2531 nm region. The latter region is considered more information-rich than the former. In spite of this, examination of the predictive power of calibration models formed strictly from fiberoptic-region absorbance data indicates that this region contains useful analytical informaton.