Side-Polished Microstructured Optical Fiber for Temperature Sensor Application

We propose new microstructured optical fiber (MOF) designs for temperature sensing applications. Such fiber designs consist of a side-polished MOF with the flat side coated with a large thermooptic coefficient external medium. Numerical analysis based on a full-vector finite-element method with a perfectly matched layer was applied to evaluate the power loss caused by the evanescent field going through the external medium. Our calculations demonstrate that it is possible to change the sensor sensitivity by selecting an adequate microstructured fiber geometry. Also, different external media can be used to shift the operational range of temperature sensing.