JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 36, NO.
18, SEPTEMBER 15, 2018
Fiber-Optic Viscometer With All-Fiber
Acousto-Optic Superlattice Modulated Structure
Heng Qian , Li-Yang Shao , Wending Zhang , Xinpu Zhang, Haijun He, Bin Luo, Wei Pan, Xihua Zou,
and Lianshan Yan
Abstract—We present a viscosity sensing method based on a fiber
Bragg grating (FBG), which is longitudinally excited by an acous-
tic transducer. The reflection spectrum of the FBG is broadened
by spatial modulation of the FBG caused by the applied acoustic
wave. The reflection bandwidth of the acoustically modulated FBG
decreases with increasing viscosity of the liquid surrounding the
FBG. The sensing mechanism relies on the reduction in spatially
periodic strain in the FBG caused by the viscosity of the surround-
ing fluid. Experimental results show that the bandwidth of the FBG
changes from 0.41 to 0.27 nm as the viscosity increases from 1.0 to
5.5 mPa·s.
Index Terms—Viscometer, acousto-optic superlattice, fiber
Bragg grating.
I. INTRODUCTION
ISCOSITY is one of the main parameters used to predict
V the physical, chemical and biological properties of fluids.
In the manufacturing industry, viscosity sensing is necessary
for real-time monitoring and control of the production process.
At present, a variety of viscometers are in common use. These
include the capillary viscometer (also called the Ostwald vis-
cometer) [1], the falling sphere viscometer [2] and rotational and
vibrational viscometers [3], [4]. Capillary viscometer presents a
high-precision measurement and needs small volumes of fluid,
but the measurement procedure is time-consuming and hinders
real-time measurement. For falling sphere viscometer, the vis-
cosity can be obtained by measuring the velocity of a sphere
Manuscript received February 27, 2018; revised June 15, 2018 and July 4,
2018; accepted July 20, 2018. Date of publication July 24, 2018; date of current
version August 8, 2018. This work was supported in part by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 61475128 and 61705189;
in part by the Key Project of Sichuan Provincial Science and Technology Plan
under Grant 2017GZ0091; and in part by the Fundamental Research Funds for
the Central Universities under Grant 2682017CX095. (Corresponding authors:
Li-Yang Shao and Wending Zhang.)
H. Qian, X. Zhang, H. He, B. Luo, W. Pan, X. Zou, and L. Yan are with the
Center for Information Photonics and Communications, School of Information
Science and Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031,
China.
L.-Y. Shao is with the Center for Information Photonics and Communications,
School of Information Science and Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University,
Chengdu 610031, China, and also with the Department of Electrical and Elec-
tronic Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen
518055, China (e-mail:,shaoly@sustc.edu.cn).
W. Zhang is with the MOE Key Laboratory of Material Physics and Chemistry
Under Extraordinary Conditions and Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Optical Infor-
mation Technology, School of Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University,
Xi’an 710072, China (e-mail:,zhangwd@nwpu.edu.cn).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JLT.2018.2859239
0733-8724 © 2018 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
4123
inside the fluid. The main disadvantages of this kind of viscome-
ter are bulky size and the time-consuming and low-precision
measurements. Most commercial viscometers are based on ro-
tational or vibrational techniques. The rotational viscometer is
suitable for a wide range of applications and the measuring pro-
cess is simple. However, like most viscometers, it is bulky, not
portable, and not suitable in-situ measurements. The vibrational
viscometer is mostly used for low viscosity liquids. Their ad-
vantage lies in convenience of measurement, requiring only a
small volume of sample. Since 2011, there have been reports
of viscosity measurement by using optical fiber methods [5].
The application of optical fiber sensing technology to viscosity
measurement is challenging. An optical viscometer, which is
formed by exciting long period fiber grating (LPG) by using of
acoustic flexural waves, has been described by Oliveira et al.
[5]. They reported that the change in reflection spectrum of the
excited LPG in their viscometer is partly due to the change of
the refractive index, and partly due to acoustic damping as the
viscosity increases. Therefore, the LPG-based viscometer pos-
sessed cross-sensitivity to refractive index and viscosity. There-
fore, Oliviera et al. needed to add a time-varying element to the
LPG’s response to separate viscosity measurement from refrac-
tive index.
In this paper, we introduce a new method for measuring the
liquid viscosity based on an all-fiber acousto-opitc superlattice
modulation (AOSLM) structure, which spatially modulates a
fiber Bragg grating (FBG) inscribed in the core of a fiber by the
applied acoustic longitudinal waves. The viscosity can be char-
acterized by the bandwidth of the modulated FBG in the mea-
surement process. Since the light field is always guided by the
fiber core, there is no evanescent field external to the cladding,
so that there is no cross-sensitivity between the refractive index
and the viscosity. Through theoretical analysis and experimen-
tal measurement, we demonstrate the relationship between the
viscosity and the width of the Bragg resonant reflection peak of
the modulated FBG.
II. PRINCIPLE
In 1986, Russell showed that planes of a FBG can be modu-
lated with the use of acoustic waves. This effect was also called
acousto-optic superlattice modulation (AOSLM) [6]. Since then
AOSLM has attracted much attention. We know that the sen-
sitivity of FBGs to temperature and strain allows FBGs to be
modulated by temperature and strain gradients [7], [8]. Both
methods will change the shape of the reflection spectrum by
4124
modulating effective refractive index and grating period. How-
ever, an alternative method to achieve the modulation of an
optical fiber grating is through the excitation of acoustic waves
in the fiber. The transmission of acoustic waves causes the strain
in the fiber. The reflection spectrum of FBG can be modulated by
the effect of this strain on the effective refractive index and grat-
ing period. Using acoustic waves one can control the reflectivity
and bandwidth of a FBG spectrum by controlling the electrical
signal which drives an acoustic transducer. Even though various
types of acoustic modes can be generated in fibers (flexural,
longitudinal, radial, torsional), the modulation effects in the
grating are achieved mainly through longitudinal and flexural
excitation. In general, both longitudinal and flexural waves are
simultaneously excited to form hybrid waves.
For acoustic longitudinal waves, the acoustic wavelength is
λL = cext /f [9], where f is the acoustic frequency and cext
is the acoustic phase velocity in the fiber, which for silica is
5760 m/s [10]. The longitudinal wave causes periodic strain
in the axial direction of the fiber. With the time and space
varying strain, the strain is given by s(p) = s0 cos (ωt − kL z),
where p = (ωt − kL z) is the propagation phase, s0 is am-
plitude of strain field, ω = 2πf is the acoustic angular fre-
quency and kL = 2π/λL is the acoustic wave constant. The
periodic strain field perturbs the grating in two ways. One is
that the effective refractive index n0 varies according to the
elasto-optic effect. The other is that the grating pitch is periodi-
cally modulated. The resulting relative dielectric constant is as
follows [9]:
    
ε (p) = (1 − χ) s (p)+ε0 1+M cos K z − s (p) dz
(1)
where χ is the elasto-optic coefficient, M is the modulation depth
of the dielectric constant ε0 in the unperturbed FBG, K = 2π/Λ
is the grating wave constant and Λ is the Bragg grating pitch.
For silica, χ = −0.22 [10].
For acoustic flexural waves, the wavelength is λF =
πacext /f [10], where a is the fiber radius. Huang et al.
demonstrated that the reflectivity can be controlled by the appli-
cation of a flexural acoustic wave to the FBG [11]. In their
work the acoustic flexural wave is generated by an acous-
tic transducer, causing periodic microbends along the fiber
(f = 1.3 MHz). According to the elasto-optic effect, the refrac-
tive index distribution is periodically modulated due to the strain
produced by periodic bending. So the microbend fiber acts as a
long period grating that couples the core and cladding modes,
which leads to the reduction of grating reflectivity at Bragg
wavelength.
Fig. 1 illustrates the basic principle of the acousto-optic
modulation of acoustic longitudinal waves. Fig. 1(a) schemati-
cally shows the grating planes and a typical reflection spectrum
of a FBG, under the condition without acoustic perturbation.
Fig. 1(b) schematically shows that acoustic longitudinal waves
produce periodic strain variation along a FBG. In this strain,
the grating planes are periodically compressed and stretched,
which result in the appearance of reflection sidebands. The in-
terval Δλ between the Bragg wavelength, λB , and a side lobe
JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 36, NO. 18, SEPTEMBER 15, 2018
Fig. 1. Schematic fiber Bragg grating and a typical reflection spectra:
(a) without modulation, (b) with longitudinal acousto-optic modulation, (c) The
simulation spectra of FBGs at different acoustic frequencies, (d) The variation
of reflectivity with strain of each sidebands in the modulated grating spectrum.
can be expressed as [12]
λ2B
Δλ = , (2)
2nef f λL
where λB is the Bragg wavelength, nef f is the effective index
of the corresponding mode and λL is the acoustic wavelength.
The normalized reflectivity in the m-th sideband is given as [12]
  
2 λL
η = tanh kLJm s0 , (3)
Λ
Where k is the coupling constant of the Bragg grating, L is
the grating length, Jm is the Bessel function of the first kind of
order m.
Longitudinal acoustic waves excited by such modulators at
frequencies in general higher than 600 kHz [13], [14], induce
distinct lobes on both sides of the Bragg wavelength. How-
ever, in the low acoustic frequency regime in general lower
than 600 kHz, the acousto-optic effect caused by this strain
leads to the broadening of the reflection spectrum of a FBG.
This is because the wavelength interval Δλ is so small that
the side lobes overlap and can’t be resolved, which results in a
broader grating spectrum. By numerically simulating the spec-
tra of FBGs at different drive frequencies, we demonstrate this
process in Fig. 1(c). Eq. (3) describes the relationship between
reflectivity and strain of various sidebands. In Eq. (3), we set the
appropriate parameters (k = 180, L = 80 cm, Λ = 500 nm and
λL = 2 cm) to calculate. The trend of sidebands changing with
strain is shown in Fig. 1(d). As the strain increases, the reflectiv-
ity and the number of sidebands increase, and the higher-order
sidebands appear to broaden the spectrum.
When we immerse the FBG, modulated by a low-frequency
acoustic wave, into the viscous fluid, the fluid will damp the
vibration of the fiber, thereby weakening the periodic strain by
an amount inversely related to the viscosity of the liquid. As the
QIAN et al.: FIBER-OPTIC VISCOMETER WITH ALL-FIBER ACOUSTO-OPTIC SUPERLATTICE MODULATED STRUCTURE
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of viscosity measurement based on the AOSLM
structure. BBS: broadband light source; Cir: circulator; OSA: optical spectrum
analyzer; FBG: fiber Bragg grating; PZT: piezoelectric transducer; AM: Ampli-
fier; RF: radio frequency source. Inset is the package of FBG sensing part.
viscosity of the liquid increase, the peak strain ε0 will decrease,
the number of sidebands will be less and the bandwidth will be
narrower. Therefore, the variation of viscosity can be determined
from the measured bandwidth of the modulated FBG’s reflection
bandwidth.
III. EXPERIMENTS AND RESULTS
A. Experimental Setup
Fig. 2 shows the proposed device for measuring viscosity
based on an AOSLM structure. It is composed of a horn-like
acoustic transducer and an unjacketed fiber Bragg grating. The
acoustic transducer is composed of a piezoelectric transducer
(PZT), a horn and a steel block. The PZT and horn assembly is
rigidly mounted on a steel block. The apex of the horn is glued
to one end of the fiber using epoxy adhesive, while the other
end of the fiber is held in a fiber mount [15]. The suspended
fiber length is 80 mm. The acoustic waves are excited by a radio
frequency source with an amplifier and then magnified at the
apex of the horn and propagated along the unjacketed fiber with
FBG. The grating is illuminated by a broadband light source,
and the reflection spectrum is recorded and displayed using an
optical spectrum analyzer with a 20 pm wavelength resolution.
The 2 cm long fiber grating inscribed in standard single mode
fiber is the sensing part of the configuration. As shown the inset
in Fig. 2, a rectangular groove with a length of 3 cm is placed
under the FBG, and the grating region with length of 2 cm is
placed in the center of groove. The solution to be measured
is added to the groove until the grating region is completely
immersed in the solution. The green part represents the solution
to be measured, and the red part of the fiber represents the fiber
with FBG immersed in the solution.
B. The Relationship Between Voltage and Spectrum
In the first experiment, we investigated how the spectrum
of the modulated grating changed with drive voltage. The
PZT was excited by a sinusoidal signal at the resonance fre-
quency f = 272 kHz. This resonance frequency corresponded
to a mechanical resonant mode of the fiber, thereby enhancing
the amplitude of the vibration and the resulting acousto-optic
modulation [13].
4125
Fig. 3. (a) Spectra of the modulated FBG at different driving voltages; (b) The
relationship between the voltage and the 3 dB spectral bandwidth of modulated
FBG, where U is the amplitude of the drive voltage.
Fig. 3(a) shows the measured FBG reflection spectrum over
the voltage range from 0 to 140 V. Fig. 3(b) shows the relation-
ship between the 3 dB bandwidth of the modulated FBG spec-
trum and the voltage. We observe that the spectral bandwidth
increases linearly with voltage at the mechanical resonance fre-
quency.
C. Simulation
Through numerical simulation, we can more clearly analyze
the effect of acoustic waves on the spectrum of the modu-
lated FBG when the FBG is immersed in the viscous liquid.
The device is numerically modeled by using 3-D finite ele-
ment method (FEM) and the transfer matrix method (TMM)
to obtain the piezo spectral response, fiber displacements and
modulated FBG spectrum [14]. FEM is used to analyze the PZT
response mode and calculate the strain of the fiber coupled by
acoustic waves. Piezoceramics do not usually respond to any
excitation frequency, but only to specific resonances in which
the vibration modes manifest larger and more particular me-
chanical displacements. The displacement of vibration in the
resonant modes is shown in Fig. 4(a) and illustrates the lateral
yz and frontal xy planes for each resonance. The displacement of
PZT is magnified to provide better observation. Red represents
the maximum displacement and blue represents the minimum
displacement. Fig. 4(b) shows the PZT frequency response in
terms of displacements, which are decomposed into longitudi-
nal (z direction) and transversal displacements (xy directions).
Obviously it can be seen that the longitudinal and transverse
deformations are distributed over the entire frequency range. In
the lower frequency range, the PZT mainly presents transversal
4126
Fig. 4. (a) PZT vibration modes and qualitative displacement behavior in
resonances; (b) Modulator frequency response in terms of the fiber transversal
and axial displacements.
deformations that excite acoustic flexural waves in the fiber. In
the higher frequency range, the main deformation of PZT is lon-
gitudinal deformation and the acoustic longitudinal waves are
excited. This is consistent with previous research conclusions
[13], [14]. In addition to the analysis of the type of the acoustic
wave excited by PZT, we can also calculate the strain distri-
bution in the fiber through FEM. The coupled mode equations
are used to analyze the spectral properties of the FBG subjected
to acoustic waves. We used the transfer-matrix method (TMM)
solve the coupled mode equations.
First, we established a model incorporating the dimensions of
the FBG and the characteristics of the acousto-optic modulator.
Then we employed the finite element method (FEM) to analyze
the mechanical properties of the model. We calculated the axial
strain s(z) along the axis of the fiber. The wavelength of FBG
subjected to the strain was used as the input to the transfer matrix
calculations. The combination of the FEM and TMM was made
through the wavelength shift in every single segment of fiber
submitted to the strain field s(z). The relations was given as [16]
λB (z) = λB 0 (1 + (1 − χ) s (z)) ,
where λB 0 is the Bragg wavelength in the FBG without strain.
This equation establishes a bridge connecting FEM and TMM.
Finally, λB is applied to the TMM method, and the spectrum of
FBG can be calculated. The numerical approach was employed
to qualitatively investigate the effect of the strain S on the modu-
lated FBG spectrum. At the same frequency (f = 271 kHz) and
different voltages, the experimentally measured and simulated
spectra are shown in Fig. 5. In the simulation, we only consider
the longitudinal strain. The axial strains used in (a), (b), (c) and
JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 36, NO. 18, SEPTEMBER 15, 2018
Fig. 5. (a-d) Simulated and measured spectra for the voltages of 20 V, 60 V,
100 V, and 140 V applied to the PZT, respectively.
(d) of Fig. 5 were 26 με, 90 με, 130 με and 180 με, respectively.
As the driving voltage of the PZT increases, the axial strain of
the FBG becomes larger and the spectrum becomes wider ac-
cordingly. The change of the simulated spectrum is in qualita-
tive agreement with the change of the experimentally measured
spectrum. These results confirm that in the low-frequency do-
main, although the acoustic longitudinal wave does not occupy
a dominant position, it plays a major role in broadening the
spectrum.
D. Viscosity Measurement and Results
In the experiments, we immersed the grating in the liquid to
be measured and investigated how the spectrum of the modu-
lated grating changed with the viscosity of immersion liquid.
Anhydrous glucose (C6 H12 O6 ) dissolved in distilled water was
used as a calibration solution whose refractive index and vis-
cosity as a function of concentration are well known [17]. We
prepared seven different glucose solution samples, which con-
centrations range from 0% to 40%, and the viscosities range
from 1.01 mPa·s to 5.5 mPa·s. In the whole experiment, the
temperature was set at 20 °C, the driving voltage and frequency
were set at 140 V and 201.6 kHz respectively.
Fig. 6 shows that the reflection spectra of the modulated FBG
(4) vary with viscosity of the glucose solution. Fig. 6(b) shows how
the 3 dB bandwidth depends on the viscosity, for an optical
fiber with a diameter of 125 μm. A quadratic fit to the data in
6(b) yields the relationship between measured spectral width
and viscosity as:
Δλ = 0.0018η 2 − 0.0258η + 0.5040 (5)
It can be seen that the sensitivity decreases as the viscosity
increases. When the diameter of the grating is etched down to
68 μm by hydrofluoric acid, the spectrum can be satisfacto-
rily broadened at a smaller drive voltage compared to unetched
QIAN et al.: FIBER-OPTIC VISCOMETER WITH ALL-FIBER ACOUSTO-OPTIC SUPERLATTICE MODULATED STRUCTURE
Fig. 6. (a) Variation of reflection spectra with viscosity of the surrounding
liquid. (b) and (c) show 3 dB reflection bandwidth as a function of viscosity for
fiber diameters 125 μm and 68 μm, respectively.
grating. The relationship between the spectrum and the viscosity
is shown in Fig. 6(c). The fitting function is shown as
Δλ = 0.0059η 2 − 0.0704η + 0.4749 (6)
As can be clearly seen, for this method of viscosity mea-
surement, the sensitivity can be increased by employing thinner
fiber.
IV. CONCLUSION
At present, most common viscometers are based on electro-
mechanical techniques. Recently, fiber-optic viscometer has also
been proposed. Because of the cross sensitivity to refractive
index, the sensor design and analysis of their output is complex.
In comparison, our sensor has no response to refractive index
because no light is guided in the liquid under test.
We have demonstrated that a sufficiently low frequency
acoustic wave to modulate the FBG can broaden the spectrum
of the main reflection peak of a FBG. Based on this, we pro-
posed and demonstrated a new method to measure the viscosity
of liquid. It does not have the problem of cross sensitivity to
the refractive index and viscosity. Through theoretical analysis
and experimental measurement, the relationship between the
viscosity and the 3 dB bandwidth of the modulated FBG spec-
trum are presented. Compared with the traditional viscometer,
the viscometer we proposed has many advantages, such as cor-
rosion resistance, real-time monitoring and good compatibility
with various optical devices. It has potential commercial value
for process and product control.
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Heng Qian received the B.S. degree in physics from Yunnan Normal University,
Kunming, China, in 2013. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree
with the School of Information Science and Technology, Southwest Jiaotong
University, Chengdu, China. His current research interests include distributed
fiber optic sensing and fiber grating and sensors.
Li-yang Shao received the Ph.D. degree in optical engineering from Zhejiang
University, Hangzhou, China, in 2008.
From 2001 to 2003, he was with O-NET Communications, Ltd., and Fo-
cused Photonics, Ltd., as a Research Engineer. He was with The Hong Kong
Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, as a Research Assistant/Associate working
on fiber grating devices and sensors. Then, he has worked as a Postdoctoral
Fellow with the Department of Electronics, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON,
Canada. In 2011, he returns to The Hong Kong Polytechnic University for
another Postdoctoral Research project. In 2012, he was granted the Endeavor
Research Fellowship from Australian government and working with the Inter-
disciplinary Photonics Laboratory, University of Sydney. In 2013, he joined
the Center for Information Photonics and Communication, Southwest Jiaotong
University, as a Full Professor. In 2015, he was granted the “Thousand Talents
Plan” (Young Professionals). In 2017, he joined the Department of Electrical
and Electronic Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology.
He has authored/coauthored more than 100 papers in the refereed international
journals/conferences. His research interests include fiber grating and sensors,
distributed fiber optic sensing, microwave photonics for sensing, and smart
sensing systems for railway industry. He acts as the Principle Investigator for
several high-level projects, such as NSFC projects, International S&T cooper-
ation program of China, etc. He served as the Co-Chair or the TPC member
of more than 20 international conferences, including the Conference on Lasers
and Electro-Optics Pacific Rim (CLEO-PR 2017–2018), the Asia Communica-
tions and Photonics Conference (ACP2018), the Asia-Pacific Optical Sensors
Conference (APOS2016–2019), etc.
4128
Wending Zhang received the B.S. degree from Northwestern Polytechnical
University, Xi’an, China, in 2007, and the Master’s degree in 2010 in optics
and the Ph.D. degree in photonics and photon technical from Nankai University,
Tianijn China, in 2013. He is currently an Associate Professor with Northwestern
Polytechnical University. His research interest focuses on the acousto-optic
interaction in optical fiber.
Xinpu Zhang received the Ph.D. degree in optical engineering from the Depart-
ment of Physics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China, in 2016, and
then joined the faculty of the School of Information Science and Technology,
Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China.
He is currently a Lecturer of the School of Information Science and Technol-
ogy, Southwest Jiaotong University. His research interests include optical fiber
sensors, fiber laser, fiber grating, and micro/nano optoelectronic devices.
Haijun He received the B.S. degree from the Southwest Jiaotong University,
Chengdu, China, in 2014. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree
with the School of Information Science and Technology, Southwest Jiaotong
University. His research interests include optical fiber sensors (especially for
the distributed optical fiber sensors) and nonlinear fiber optics.
Bin Luo received the Ph.D. degree from Southwest Jiaotong University,
Chengdu, China, in 1995.
He is currently a Professor with the School of Information Science and Tech-
nology, Southwest Jiaotong University. He is the author or coauthor of more
than 80 research papers. His current research interests include semiconductor
optical amplifiers and optical communication.
JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 36, NO. 18, SEPTEMBER 15, 2018
Wei Pan is a currently a Full Professor and the Dean of the School of Informa-
tion Science and Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China.
He has authored/coauthored more than 200 papers in high-impact refereed jour-
nals. His research interests include semiconductor lasers, nonlinear dynamic
systems, and optical communications. Prof. Pan was appointed as the steer-
ing and consultancy expert of the highest level national project (973 Project)
of China. He was also awarded as the Academic and Technology Leader of
Sichuan province, China.
Xihua Zou is currently a Full Professor with the Center for Information Pho-
tonics and Communications, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China.
He has authored or coauthored more than 80 academic papers in high-impact
refereed journals. His current interests include microwave photonics, radio over
fiber, and optical communications. Dr. Zou was the recipient of the Alexander
von Humboldt Research Fellowship, National Outstanding Expert in Science
and Technology of China, the Nomination Award for the National Excellent
Doctoral Dissertation of China, the Science and Technology Award for Young
Scientist of Sichuan Province, China, and the Outstanding Reviewer of Op-
tics Communications. He currently serves as an Associate Editor of the IEEE
JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, the Guest Editor for a Special Section
on Microwave Photonics in IEEE/OSA JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY,
and once as the Editor and the Coordinator for a Focus Issue on Microwave Pho-
tonics in the IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, and the leading Guest
Editor for a Special Section on Microwave Photonics in Optical Engineering.
Lianshan Yan is currently a Full Professor and the Director of Center for
Information Photonics and Communications, Southwest Jiaotong University,
Chengdu, China.
Dr. Yan is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA). He was the
recipient of the IEEE Photonics Society Distinguished Lecturer Award for 2011–
2013 and the IEEE LEOS Graduate Fellowship in 2002. He currently serves as
the Chair of the Fiber Optics Technology Technical Group, OSA. He served as
the Co-Chair or the TPC member of more than 20 international conferences,
including the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition (OFC,
since 2013), the European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC, since
2013), the Asia Communications and Photonics Conference (ACP, 2010–2012),
etc. He was an Associate Editor of the IEEE PHOTONICS JOURNAL.