Design of a terahertz chemical sensor using a dual steering-wheel microstructured photonic crystal fiber

In this paper, we design a novel photonic crystal fiber (PCF) chemical sensor in terahertz region wherein the cladding structure is made of a dual steering-wheel (DSW) shape of large non-circular air-hole. In this PCF, rectangular structured air holes are introduced in the core, which, in turn, is filled with any of the analytes, namely, water, ethanol and benzene. We use the full-vectorial finite element method (FEM) to optimize the structural parameters. The findings of the simulation show a high relative sensitivity of 94.9%, 95.4% and 95.6% for water, ethanol and benzene, respectively. Further, we study the various characteristics of the proposed PCF, namely, birefringence, effective area and numerical aperture (NA).

Automated summary

This study presents a novel photonic crystal fiber (PCF) chemical sensor with a unique air-hole structure, achieving high sensitivity to water, ethanol, and benzene through optimized structural parameters. Various characteristics of the proposed PCF, including birefringence, effective area, and numerical aperture (NA), were also analyzed, providing new insights for the application of fiber optic chemical sensors.