Enhancement of chemical sensing capability in a photonic crystal fiber with a hollow high index ring defect at the center

Abstract

A new type of index-guided photonic crystal fiber is proposed to enhance chemical sensing capability by introducing a hollow high index ring defect that consists of the central air hole surrounded by a high index GeO(2) doped SiO(2) glass ring. Optical properties of the fundamental guided mode were numerically analyzed using the full-vector finite element method varying the design parameters of both the defects in the center and the hexagonal air-silica lattice in the cladding. Enhanced evanescent wave interaction in the holey region and lower confinement loss by an order of magnitude were achieved simultaneously, which shows a high potential in hyper sensitive fiber-optic chemical sensing applications. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America