Refractive index sensor based on a solid-core photonic crystal fiber interferometer

Abstract

Photonic crystal fiber interferometers are widely used for sensing applications. In this work, solid core-Photonic crystal fiber based on Mach-Zehnder modal interferometer for sensing refractive index was presented. The general structure of sensor applied by splicing short lengths of PCF in both sides with conventional single mode fiber (SMF-28). To apply modal interferometer theory; collapsing technique based on fusion splicing used to excite higher order modes (LP01 and LP11). Laser diode (1550 nm) has been used as a pump light source. Where a high sensitive optical spectrum analyzer (OSA) was used to monitor and record the transmitted. The experimental work shows that the interference spectrum of Photonic crystal fiber interferometer exhibits good sensitivity to refractive index variations. The response of the PCFI is observed for a range of refractive index values from (1.33 to 1.38), the position of the interference peaks is found to be shifted to longer wavelength with refractive index increasing. A different length of PCFs (2, 3, 4) cm were used, and the maximum refractive index sensitivity of (7.5 pm / RIU) is achieved with a PCF length of 4 cm. This refractive index sensor has distinguished properties as that it small size, high sensitivity, fast response time, design flexibility, and immunity to electromagnetic interference.