White light interferometry enables us to measure absolute quantities without 2$\pi$ ambiguity when is observed interferometric signal in spectral domain. This thesis is concerned with the measurents of optical dispersion, photoelastic and thermooptic properties of fibers, using white light interferometers and their applications to sensors. A Michelson interferometer was constructed with a broadband source and single mode fiber. A laser diode (LD) was used as a broadband source, having 0.83 $\mu$m wavelength and 24 nm FWHM at 38 mA of driving current. An optical spectrum analyzer was used to obtain the interferometric output in spectral domain. With the length difference of 11.8 cm between two fibers used as optical paths in the interferometer, the amount of chromatic dispersion of the fiber was measured to be $-91.5 ps/km^2nm$. A super luminescent diode (SLD) was used as another broadband source centered at 1.3 $\mu$m with 50 nm FWHM, where the dispersion effect in fibers is neglegibly small. The number of fringes in 100 nm spectral range was counted to measure the optical path difference. The number of fringes changed by one, when the retroreflector that provided a tunable path length difference, was moved 9 $\mu$m. When heat was applied to the fiber constituting one arm of the interferometer, two fringes were added (or subtracted) as temperature changed about $3\,^\circ\!C$ over 48cm of fiber. The thermooptic coefficient of the fiber was found to be $0.8\times10^{-5}/\,^\circ\!C$. The number of fringes changed by one when the fiber in one arm of the interferometer was elongated by about 8 $\mu$m. The photoelastic coefficient was found to be -0.23. As a result, the white interferometer can be used as displacement, temperature, and strain sensors. Another application is described where the refractive index of a sample was measured by inserting it in the optical path of the interferometer.
