Single air-mode resonance photonic crystal nanofiber cavity for ultra-high sensitivity refractive index sensing

Abstract

We propose a design of series-connected one-dimensional photonic crystal nanofiber cavity sensor (1-D PC-NCS) and one-dimensional photonic crystal nanofiber bandgap filter (1-D PC-NBF). The proposed structure can get a single air mode for refractive index sensing with its extinction ratio of 58.64 dB. It filters out the high order mode and reduces the interaction between signals. By 3D FDTD, the calculated sensitivity is 848.18 nm/RIU (RIU – refractive index unit). Compared with general silicon on-chip nanobeam cavity, the sensitivity is increased by eight times. The additional 1-D PC-NBF will not change the sensitivity and the position of the resonance wavelength. Therefore, the new design we propose addresses the issue of crosstalk, and can be applied to ultra-high sensitivity index-based gas sensing and biosensing without the need for complicated coupling systems.