Refractive index and strain sensor made of S-tapered photonic crystal fiber

An experimental investigation on an S-tapered photonic crystal fiber interferometer is presented in this paper. The sensor exhibits highly surrounding refractive index sensitive, which is 4.7 × 10−3 RIU (refractive index unit) in 1.33–1.39 and 1.45 × 10−3 RIU in 1.39–1.44 commensurable with general sensors. Attribute to the S-shape’s distortion, red shifts are measured in axial strain test. In addition, insensitivity (4.3 pm/°C) in low temperature and sensitivity (22.4 pm/°C) in high temperature are confirmed by experiments. These properties combined with a simple fabrication process and a durable structure.