SOUTHAMPTON, England, Dec. 12 -- Optical components supplier Southampton Photonics (SPI) has been awarded a contract to design, develop and manufacture distributed feedback fiber lasers (DFBs) by QinetiQ, a UK science and technology research company formed from part of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency. Tthe lasers will be used in an application for sensing acoustic signals. DFB fiber lasers have a variety of applications, such as in hydrophony, seismology, ocean bed surveying, multiphase flow measurements and sub-sea oil and gas pipeline monitoring. Wwhen DFBs are packaged as sources, their narrow line width makes them ideal for such sensing applications as LiDAR and LiDAR arrays, SPI said. For more information, visit: www.southamptonphotonics.com