Welcome to the website of the
Advanced Photonic Sensors Unit
at the University of Mons
This website highlights the research activities of the Advanced Photonic Sensors Unit, led by Prof. Christophe Caucheteur.
Building on more than two decades of expertise, the unit designs and deploys advanced sensing solutions based on fiber Bragg grating (FBG) technology,
addressing challenges in energy, industry, and health.
The unit’s research has given rise to the spin-off company B-SENS (www.b-sens.be).
Current activities are supported by a broad portfolio of competitive funding schemes:
Research activities
Our research unit gathers >20 year expertise in the study and development of advanced sensing solutions based on the fiber Bragg grating (FBG) technology
FBG manufacturing
We design and manufacture advanced fiber Bragg gratings using tailored inscription techniques and architectures, from standard FBGs to highly specialized gratings for demanding sensing applications.
Physical sensing
We develop robust FBG-based sensors for precise measurements of strain, temperature, vibration and other physical parameters, targeting challenging applications in industry, energy, geosciences and structural monitoring.
Biochemical sensing
We turn fiber gratings into highly sensitive biochemical sensors, combining tilted FBGs, plasmonics and surface functionalization for label-free and real-time detection of biological and chemical targets.
Our Team
Leadership
Senior Researchers & Postdoc
PhD Researchers
Visiting & Technical Staff
Alumni
Former PhD Researchers
We have up-to-date facilities
50 m2 clean room of class 10,000 with 3 laser facilities for FBG inscription, including 2 femtosecond pulses lasers
Noria facility to write FBGs in a semi-automated way
HeCd laser to produce FBG in PMMA optical fibers
Ovens for temperature characterization up to 1200 °C
Fully-equipped biophotonic lab to test FBG biochemical sensors
Two sputtering machines to coat optical fibers with thin metal layers
Set-up to characterize FBG-based strain sensors
