Numerical analysis of a proposed photonic crystal fiber for sulfuric acid sensing

Abstract

A photonic crystal fiber sensor with dimensions of 2 cladding rings of circular and hexagonal air holes and a single core hole for sulfuric acid sensing is proposed and investigated through a full vector Finite Element Method on COMSOL Multiphysics software. An aqueous sulfuric acid of varied concentrations of 0%, 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% is selected as the test analyte. The sensor established remarkable results of effective refractive index, power fraction, relative sensitivity, confinement loss and chromatic dispersion. At optimum wavelength of 1.3 µm, 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% sulfuric acid concentrations depict relative sensitivities of 95.35%, 96.16%, 96.71%, 97.19% and 97.59%, respectively, and confinement losses of 5.15×10−10 dB/m, 1.60×10−10 dB/m, 4.16×10−11 dB/m, 1.17×10−11 dB/m and 3.92×10−12 dB/m, respectively.