Filtering Characteristics and Applications of Photonic Crystal Fibers Being Selectively Infiltrated With One Aluminum Rod

The filtering characteristics and applications of photonic crystal fibers being selectively infiltrated with one aluminum rod were investigated based on the finite-element method. The aluminum rod being selectively infiltrated into one cladding air hole acted as a defect core and generated surface plasmon polaritons on its surface. As the phase matching condition was satisfied, the light transferring in fiber core coupled to the surface of the aluminum rod and the confinement losses of core modes experienced an abrupt increase. The filtering characteristics could be modified by adjusting the fiber structure parameters, such as diameters of air holes and the aluminum rod. Two applications of the photonic crystal fibers being selectively infiltrated with one aluminum rod were studied. First, a polarization filter with ultrabroad bandwidth was designed based on the cascaded resonances between fiber core modes and surface plasmon polariton modes. The bandwidth of the polarization filter was as broad as 600 nm covering wavelengths from 1.4 to 2.0 μm. Second, an intensity-type refractive index sensor was designed based on the filtering characteristics. The output power ratio and sensitivity increased as the refractive index of analyte increases and reached to 3.91 dB and 128 dB/RIU in x-polarized direction at the analyte refractive index of 1.37, respectively.