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

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.