Refractometry with filled antiresonant capillary fibers

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel refractometric technique using filled antiresonant capillary fibers to measure the refractive index of various materials, demonstrated on agarose gels, with broad potential applications.

Contribution

The study presents a new method for refractometry based on transmission spectra of filled antiresonant fibers, applicable to diverse materials including gels, solids, and liquids.

Findings

Successfully characterized agarose gel dispersion properties

Determined the first-order Sellmeier coefficients for agar gels

Proposed a simple, versatile refractometric measurement approach

Abstract

We demonstrate the realization of refractometric measurements relying on the study of the transmission spectrum of filled capillary fibers. In this method, the fiber is filled with a material with a lower refractive index than that of the capillary and, due to antiresonant guidance mechanism, a characteristic transmission spectrum alternating high and low attenuation regions is obtained. The refractive index data is hence extracted by analyzing the spectral positions of the fiber transmission bands. While this method holds broad applicability for diverse materials, we specifically applied this technique to characterize agarose gels, due to their interest as a promising optical material. By analyzing the transmission spectra across the 600-900 nm wavelength range, we determined the dispersion trend for agar gels prepared with varying water and glycerol concentrations and estimated their first-order Sellmeier coefficients. The reported refractometric method provides a simple and promising means for characterizing the dispersion properties of a wide range of materials, including gels, solids, and liquids, also opening new possibilities for the development of new refractive index sensing platforms.