Refractive index sensor based on selectively liquid infiltrated birefringent photonic crystal fiber

Abstract

We propose a highly sensitive micro-fluidic refractive index (RI) sensor based on birefringent photonic crystal fiber (B-PCF) in this article. A single microchannel is infiltrated with liquid analyte, situated next to the core to attract mode field with analyte. The proposed sensor structure works on total internal reflection (TIR) mechanism. It is optimized and its sensitivity is numerically analyzed in detail using Finite Element Method (FEM). All the simulation results apprise that the structural parameter variation influences a little on the sensitivity of the refractive index sensor which suppress the necessity of the precise processing. A high sensitivity of 15428.50nm/RIU is achieved by this sensor with birefringence ∼ 10-4 in the RI range from 1.36 to 1.41 with a resolution of 5×10-6 RIU. The proposed highly sensitive RI sensor may be a potential candidate for chemical and industrial sensing applications.