Photonic crystal fibers; fundamental properties and applications within sensors

Since the first experimental demonstration of a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) in 1996 by Knight et al. the optical properties and the fabrication of such fibers have attracted significant attention. The fiber structure with a lattice of air holes running along the length of the fiber provides a large variety of novel optical properties and improvements compared to standard optical fibers. The stack-and-pull procedure used to manufacture PCFs is a highly flexible method offering a large degree of freedom in the fabrication of PCFs with specific characteristics. A few of the remarkable optical properties of silica based PCFs are described and their applications within sensors are summarized.