Sensitivity of photonic crystal fiber grating sensors: biosensing, refractive index, strain, and temperature sensing

We study the sensitivity of fiber grating sensors in the applications of strain, temperature, internal label-free biosensing, and internal refractive index sensing. New analytical expressions for the sensitivities, valid for photonic crystal fibers are rigorously derived. These are generally valid, and we identify a previously unaccounted term for temperature and strain sensing. It is shown that dispersion plays a central role in determining the sensitivity, and that dispersion may enhance or suppress sensitivity as well as change the sign of the resonant wavelength shifts. We propose a quality factor, Q, for characterizing long period gratings sensors. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.