Ultrahigh sensitive refractive index sensor based on tapered multicore optical fiber

Abstract

The refractive index sensors based on tapered optical fiber are attractive for many industries due to sensing capability in a variety of application. In this paper, we proposed a refractive index sensor based on multicore fiber (MCF) sandwiched between two standard single mode fibers (SMF). The sensor consisting of three sections, SMF- MCF-SMF is structurally simple and can be easily produced by joining these parts. The MFC contains seven cores and these cores are surrounded by a single cladding. The sensing region is obtained by tapering the MCF section where the evanescent field is generated. The single mode propagating along the SMF is stimulated at the first joint and is coupled to the cladding modes. These modes interfere with the core mode after passing the second joint. The transmission spectrum of the output light at the end of the third section is sensitive to the refractive index (RI) of the environment surrounding the cladding. In this study, the RI sensitivity of the proposed sensor was analyzed numerically and the RI sensing characteristic was investigated for different measurement ranges and different structural configurations. The results show that the refractive index sensitivity is extremely high in the range of about 1.44 to 1.45 RIU. In addition, the developed sensor has many advantages such as compact construction, low cost, small size and easy fabrication. It also has the potential to perform high precision measurements in fields such as biochemistry, health care and biological applications.