Design optimization of a highly sensitive spiral photonic crystal fiber for liquid and chemical sensing applications

Abstract

• Sensitivity coefficient is analyzed for three liquids water, propane and propylene of different refractive indices. • Confinement loss is investigated for the optimized parameters of PCF. • Relative Sensitivity is analyzed for different pitch values. • Sensitivity is investigated for various air filling fraction in the cladding region. In this paper, a spiral shaped photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is proposed for liquid sensing applications. The guiding properties of the proposed PCF are analysed. Sensitivity coefficient is analysed by varying different structural parameters for a wider wavelength range. In addition, confinement loss is also studied at the same wavelengths. The relative sensitivity achieved for the optimized parameters are 56.8%, 58.3% and 62.7% for water (n = 1.33), propane (n = 1.34) and propylene (n = 1.36) respectively. With its low confinement loss and high sensitivity the proposed PCF can be used for liquid and chemical sensing applications.