Abstract

Conventional Bragg gratings (BGs) inscribed in optical fibers, application-specific optical filters can be designed based on the well-developed grating theory [1]. The main drawback of incorporating conventional fiber BGs (FBGs), for realizing optical components for sensing applications, is their low thermal resolution [2] at cryogenic temperature levels, as well as the very few degrees of freedom in engineering their modal properties. These two factors can significantly limit the potential capabilities of FBGs, especially in harsh sensing environments like space-shuttles. Thus other ultimate technologies have to be introduced to overpass these difficulties. It has been conjectured that photonic crystal fibers (PCFs), also known as microstructured optical fibers (MOFs), are promising platforms for many novel applications in the telecommunication industry [3], as well as in the traditional sensor industry, because they can enable light to be controlled in the fiber in ways not previously possible or even imaginable. They have attracted considerable attention in recent years [4], due to the unlimited possibilities in engineering their modal properties.

© 2007 IEEE