Fiber-Optic Probe Based on a Bifunctional Lensed Photonic Crystal Fiber for Refractive Index Measurements of Liquids

We report a fiber-optic sensor for measuring the refractive index (RI) of a liquid sample. The sensing probe is constructed from an extrinsic cavity formed by a micromirror and a lensed photonic crystal fiber (PCF) tip. We show that PCF lens with an unconventionally large radius of curvature is bifunctional; an effective reflector as well as a collimator and thus suitable for realizing long single-arm interferometers, with a cavity length of the order of few mm. A sensing head suitable for measuring the refractive index (RI) of liquids is constructed by encapsulating the bifunctional lens tip and a micromirror in a glass tube. A hole is made in the glass-tube to allow free-flow of the liquid sample in-and-out of the cavity. The cavity length was about 1 mm. The group index of the liquid samples is obtained from the Fourier peak position of the interference signal measured in wavelength with optical spectrometer. The RIs of distilled water, acetone and ethanol (at 829 nm, 20°C) were measured to be 1.32822, 1.35416, and 1.35715, respectively. The resolution of the sensor was analytically found to be 2.6 × 10^-5 and the response was experimentally shown to be linear.