Extremely sensitive chemical sensor for terahertz regime based on a hollow-core photonic crystal fibre

Abstract

We suggest a new kind of sensor based on a hollow-core photonic crystal fibre. It is aimed at identification of different chemicals using terahertz-range electromagnetic signals. Software based on a full-vectorial finite-element method is used to design this fibre and explore its propagation characteristics. By filling the core air hole with aqueous analytes and tuning different designing parameters at 2.4 THz, one can achieve the maximal relative sensitivities 98.5, 98.2 and 97.6% respectively for benzene, ethanol and water analytes. Moreover, the confinement loss and the bulk material loss as low as 1.64×10–13 cm–1 and 0.004 cm–1 can simultaneously be obtained under optimal conditions. The fibre suggested by us can be easily manufactured using modern fabrication techniques. We hope that our sensor can be efficiently used in many real-life applications.