Seven-core photonic liquid crystal fibers for simultaneous mode shaping and temperature sensing

Through doping liquid crystals into the core region, we propose a kind of seven-core photonic crystal fiber (PCF) which can achieve mode shaping and temperature sensing simultaneously in the communication window of 1.1–1.7 μm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the function of seven-core PCFs as temperature sensors is investigated. By using the full vectorial finite element method, the characteristics of the fiber with the temperature, such as the effective mode area, the waveguide dispersion, and the confinement loss, are analyzed. This kind of PCF can be competitive in providing temperature sensing in multi-core PCF lasers.