refractive index measurement within a photonic crystal fibre based on short wavelength diffraction在光子晶体光纤折射率测量基于短的波长衍射.pdfVIP

Sensors 2007, 7, 2492-2498 sensors ISSN 1424-8220 © 2007 by MDPI /sensors Communication Refractive index measurement within a photonic crystal fibre based on short wavelength diffraction Cicero Martelli 1,2,3*, John Canning 1,3, Martin Kristensen 3 and Nathaniel Groothoff 1,4 1 School of Chemistry Optical Fibre Technology Centre, University of Sydney, 206 National Innovation Centre, ATP, Sydney, NSW 1430, Australia 2 School of Electrical and Information Engineering, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 3 Department of Physics and Astronomy and Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), University of Aarhus, Ny Munkegade, Building 1520, DK-8000 Århus C, Denmark E-mail: c.martelli@.au, j.canning@.au, mk@inano.dk 4 School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 E-mail: n.groothoff@.au * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Received: 18 September 2007 / Accepted: 22 October 2007 / Published: 30 October 2007 Abstract: A new class of refractive index sensors using solid core photonic crystal fibres is demonstrated. Coherent scattering at the cladding lattice is used to optically characterize materials inserted into the fibre holes. The liquid to solid phase transition of water upon freezing to ice 1h is characterized by determining the refractive index. Keywords: optical fibre sensors, gratings, diffraction, photonic crystal fibres, microstructured fibres, capillary, ice. 1. Introduction Various methods have been proposed in the literature for measuring th