Coupled energy measurements in multi-core photonic-crystal fibers

This paper outlines a measurement method of properties of microstructured optical fibers that are useful in sensing applications. Experimental studies of produced photonic-crystal fibers allow for a better understanding of the principles of energy coupling in photonic-crystal fibers. For that purpose, fibers with different filling factors and lattice constants were produced. The measurements demonstrated the influence of the fiber geometry on the coupling level of light between the cores. For a distance between the cores of 15 μm, a very low level (below 2%) of energy coupling was obtained. For a distance of 13 μm, the level of energy transfer toneighboring cores on the order of 2-4% was achieved for a filling factor of 0.29. The elimination of the energycoupling penomenon between the cores was achieved by duplicating the filling factor of the fiber. The coupling level was as high as 22% in the case of fibers with a distance between the cores of 8.5 μm. Our results can be used for microstructured-fiber sensing applications and for transmission-channel switching in liquid-crystal multi-core photonic fibers.