Simulation analysis of a temperature sensor based on photonic crystal fiber filled with different shapes of nanowires

We propose a photonic crystal fiber (PCF)-based surface plasmons resonance (SPR) temperature sensor in this paper, and using the dual function of PCF filled with different shapes of nanowires and analyte to realize temperature sensing and have designed an experimental setup. Different shapes of nanowires with the mixed liquid are filled into the proposed octagon PCF. The simulation results indicate that not only structure parameters of PCF but also the shapes of filled nanowires play a key role to the sensing. A blue-shift in the SPR resonant peak is shown with the temperature increases. Different loss spectra present that a higher confinement loss for low temperature and the octagon PCF filled with elliptical nanowires shows a more obvious peak shift and higher sensitivity, which is about 500 pm/°C and the corresponding sensor resolution is 2.0 × 10−2 °C. This PCF sensing system has great practical value and significance for its advantage of high sensitivity.