Experimentally and analytically derived generalized model for the detection of liquids with suspended-core optical fibers

A generalized model for the detection of liquids within suspended-core microstructured optical fibers has been experimentally and theoretically derived. The sensor detection is based on the refractometric principle of transmission losses due to the overlap of the evanescent field with the liquid analyte. A number of parameters, including fiber core diameter and filling length, have been included in the general model. Specially tailored suspended-core fibers were manufactured with the core diameters within the range of 2.4 m to 4.0 m. Five selected liquid analytes were used to cover the refractive index range of 1.35 to 1.42. Based on experiments, the characteristics of the parameters of the semi-empirical model have been determined by a genetic algorithm using 283 measurement data sets. The model can be used to design sensors for the detection of liquid analytes as it provides a set of parameters allowing to optimize the sensor's sensitivity for a wide scale of applications. Finally, numerical simulations of the system were carried out by an eigenmode routine to support the results of the generalized model.