Effects of structure parameters on the sensor performance of photonic crystal fiber

A simple and compact sensor based on a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) for the in-situ detection of fluorescence signals with high sensitivity is demonstrated. Several different kinds of PCF probes are studied. The effect of PCF parameters on sensitivity and the guiding mechanisms are analyzed, and the performance of PCF probes is experimentally evaluated by measuring the fluorescence signal of Cy3 dye. In addition, the detection sensitivity of the hollow-core PCF probe and the flat-tippedmulti-mode fiber probe is compared. The experimental results show that the hollow-core PCF probe provides a greater than five-fold increase in detection sensitivity compared with direct measurements by a flat-tippedmulti-mode fiber probe, which shows its potential for wide applications to in-situ detection in the medical, forensic, biological, geological, and environmental fields with high sensitivity.