Prospects of photonic crystal fiber for analyte sensing applications: an overview

Abstract

The detection and monitoring of physical, chemical and biomedical parameters are increasingly reliant on fiber-optic sensing technology. Of applicable optical methods, photonic crystal fiber (PCF) sensors show its potential as a sensitive technique in environmental, industrial, food preservation and medical applications. Such a system incorporates the fabrication of a particular PCF, the interaction of wave propagation with the measured field, signal processing to offer automated real-time measurement in terms of the amplitude, phase, polarization and wavelength of spectrum.This article is an endeavour towards giving a brief overview of the development of analyte sensors using PCFs in the last few years. Different kinds of PCF analyte sensors are discussed based on the measuring entity and reported works. This discussion integrates a variety in the nature of the core, metal coating on the PCF and liquid infiltration in the holes. It is also considered to present the phenomena of its internal structure and interference techniques for several applications. Advances in this technology, particularly in the areas of gas sensing, chemical spices and bio analytes, will be discussed in this article with some applications.

Polarization Selective PCF-Based Plasmonic Biosensor for Multi-Analyte Detection

“…The results demonstrate that the DCSP sensors are suitable for detecting biochemical materials, including chemical solutions and biological elements, owing to the sensor's ability to detect broad analyte RI of the range 1.33 to 1.41. For example, water (RI=1.33), milk (RI=1.37), acetic acid (RI=1.37), decane (RI=1.41), and even breast cancer cells at line MCF-7 (RI=1.401) [6,[30][31][32][33]. Moreover, one vital characteristic of a sensor is sensor resolution.…”

Optical Fiber Optofluidic Bio‐Chemical Sensors: A Review

“…In OFOF bio‐chemical sensors, microfluidics can be integrated either inside the optical fiber or in additional fluid channels around the fiber. Although the optical fibers that can be used for OFOF sensors are rich and diverse, it can be summarized as the optical fibers with microfluidic channels [ 31–33 ] and optical fibers that can be integrated into microfluidic channels [ 34–36 ] (including microfiber, thin fiber, and D‐shaped fiber). For optical fibers with microfluidic channels, light and fluid can be integrated inside the optical fiber, which has outstanding advantages such as long interaction distance between light and microfluidics, compact structure, and easy coupling of optical signals, thus achieving vigorous development.…”

Thermo-optics of gilded hollow-core fibers

“…Complex inner design together with various guiding mechanisms allowed the demonstration of a range of practical devices, including polarization filters, 2 beam splitters, 3 logic gates, lasers, 4 and sensors. 2,5–10 Among a variety of applications, inner-core functionalization strategies have been increasingly explored. 1,6,11–14 While many different materials, including nanostructures, have been explored in this endeavor, 15–17 here we will concentrate on plasmonic metals, which are known for their capabilities to manipulate light below the classical diffraction limit.…”