Loss Mechanisms and Fluorescence in Photonic Crystal Fibers Filled with Liquids and Polymers

We study the mechanisms responsible for losses in photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) with liquid samples in their core. We find that evaporation is an important issue, which considerably empties the cores even for experiments with durations of the order of a few minutes. We also study all‐solid PCFs whose cores are filled with a curable transparent polymer. Doping the polymer may allow for device development. Here we demonstrate fluorescence emission at $∼910 nm$ from PbS colloidal quantum dots suspended in polymeric‐core PCFs of 9‐cm length pumped by a 679‐nm diode laser.