Theoretical Considerations of Photonic Crystal Fiber with All Uniform-Sized Air Holes for Liquid Sensing

Abdul Mu’Iz Maidi,Pg Emeroylarffion Abas,Feroza Begum,Pg Iskandar Petra,Nianyu Zou,Shubi Kaijage

doi:10.3390/photonics8070249

Abstract

A novel liquid-infiltrated photonic crystal fiber model applicable in liquid sensing for different test liquids—water, ethanol and benzene—has been proposed. One core hole and three air hole rings have been designed and a full vector finite element method has been used for numerical investigation to give the best results in terms of relative sensitivity, confinement loss, power fraction, dispersion, effective area, nonlinear coefficient, numerical aperture and V-Parameter. Specially, the assessed relative sensitivities of the proposed fiber with water, ethanol and benzene are 94.26%, 95.82% and 99.58%, respectively, and low confinement losses of 1.52 × 10−11 dB/m with water, 1.21 × 10−12 dB/m with ethanol and 6.01 × 10−16 dB/m with benzene, at 1.0 μm operating wavelength. This novel PCF design is considered simple and can be easily fabricated for practical use, and the assessed waveguide properties has determined the potential applicability in real liquid sensing applications.

Highlights

Photonic crystal fiber (PCF) gained tremendous interest from researchers and manufacturers in the past few decades, after it was first introduced in the late 1990s [1]
The proposed PCF is used for liquid sensing application, with various unknown liquid analytes to be injected into the core of the fiber for detection
Effective refractive indices of the proposed PCF sensor with the sensing liquid analytes Effective r(ewfraatecrt,ivetehianndoilcaensdobf etnhzeepnreo) paroesieldlusPtCraFtesdeinnsFoirgwurieth4.thItedseemnosninsgtralitqesutihdaatnefaf-ective refractive lyteseaarrelyillwuistthrarteesdpienctFitgouarne 4in. cItredaesme oinnswtravteesletnhgathe.ffeTchtisveis based on the refractive indexphdeencroemaseensolnintehaartlyelwecittrhomreasgpnecetitcosaignnianlcwreiathsesimnawllaevrewleanvgetlhen

Summary

Introduction

Photonic crystal fiber (PCF) gained tremendous interest from researchers and manufacturers in the past few decades, after it was first introduced in the late 1990s [1]. This popularity arose due to its flexibility, in term of structural design, allowing air holes of different shapes and sizes to be embedded into the PCF, in order to manipulate different properties of the fiber. Refractive indices of the fibers can be uniquely changed to produce a desired effect, and correspond to certain optical properties [2] This is in contrast to a conventional optical fiber, which is limited to altering refractive indices of the core and cladding only. PCF generally has a high-index core within an air hole filled cladding, to give a hybrid of air-silica fiber with lower overall refractive index in its cladding than the refractive index in its core [3]

Methods

Results

Conclusion