Sensing capabilities of the birefringent holey fibers

The paper reports on research towards the application of photonic crystal fibers as active and passive elements of fiber optic sensors for measurement of hydrostatic pressure and elongation. Experimental techniques useful for measurements of the phase and the group modal birefringence as well as the fiber polarimetric sensitivity are presented. The results of measurements of selected parameters are compared with theoretical predictions. It is also demonstrated that, in the class of birefringent holey fibers, a single polarization operation can be achieved in a wide spectral range.