Over the past decades, the development of fibre optic cables, which pass light waves carrying data guided by total internal reflection, has led to advances in high-speed and long-distance communication, large data transmission, optical imaging, and sensing applications. Thus far, fibre optic sensors (FOSs) have primarily been employed in engineering, biomedicine, and basic sciences, with few reports of their usage in geophysics as point and distributed sensors. This work aimed at reviewing the studies on the use of FOSs in geophysical applications with their fundamental principles and technological improvements. FOSs based on Rayleigh, Brillouin, and Raman scatterings and fibre Bragg grating sensors are reviewed based on their sensing performance comprising sensing range, spatial resolution, and measurement parameters. The recent progress in applying distributed FOSs to detect acoustic, temperature, pressure, and strain changes, as either single or multiple parameters simultaneously on surface and borehole survey environments with their cable deployment techniques, has been systematically reviewed. Despite the development of fibre optic sensor technology and corresponding experimental reports of applications in geophysics, there have not been attempts to summarise and synthesise fibre optic methods for prospecting as a comprehensive and modern branch of geophysics. Therefore, this paper outlines the fibre optic prospecting methods, with an emphasis on their advantages, as a guide for the geophysical community. The potential of the new outlined fibre optic prospecting methods to revolutionise conventional geophysical approaches is discussed. Finally, the future challenges and limitations of the new prospecting methods for geophysical applications are elucidated.

在过去的几十年中，光缆的发展使光波传输通过全内反射引导数据的光波，从而推动了高速和长距离通信，大数据传输，光学成像和传感应用的发展。到目前为止，光纤传感器（FOS）主要用于工程，生物医学和基础科学领域，很少有报道称其在地球物理学中用作点传感器和分布式传感器。这项工作旨在审查有关在地球物理应用中使用FOS的研究及其基本原理和技术改进。基于Rayleigh，Brillouin和Raman散射以及光纤Bragg光栅传感器的FOS基于其感测性能（包括感测范围，空间分辨率和测量参数）进行了回顾。系统地回顾了应用分布式FOS来检测声波，温度，压力和应变变化的最新进展，这些发现是利用电缆部署技术同时在地面和钻孔测量环境中同时检测单个或多个参数。尽管光纤传感器技术得到了发展，并且在地球物理学中有相应的实验报告，但仍没有尝试总结和综合用于勘探的光纤方法，将其作为地球物理学的一个综合而现代的分支。因此，本文概述了光纤勘探方法，并重点介绍了它们的优势，以作为地球物理界的指南。讨论了新概述的光纤勘探方法对传统地球物理方法的革新潜力。最后，