Sensitivity of photonic crystal fiber grating sensors: biosensing, refractive index, strain, and temperature sensing

TL;DR

This paper investigates how optical dispersion influences the sensitivity of fiber grating sensors across various applications, proposing a quality factor to better characterize their performance.

Contribution

It introduces a new perspective on the role of optical dispersion in sensor sensitivity and proposes a quality factor for LPGs to improve their characterization.

Findings

Optical dispersion significantly affects sensor sensitivity.

Dispersion can enhance, suppress, or reverse wavelength shifts.

A new quality factor $Q$ for LPGs is proposed.

Abstract

We study the sensitivity of fiber grating sensors in the applications of strain, temperature, internal label-free biosensing, and internal refractive index sensing. It is shown that optical dispersion plays a central role in determining the sensitivity, and the dispersion may enhance or suppress sensitivity as well as change the sign of the resonant wavelength shifts. We propose a quality factor, $Q$, for characterizing LPGs.