Phase sensitivity to temperature of the guiding mode in polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber

The propagating phase changing of a polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber (PM-PCF) caused by temperature variation is theoretically studied, as well as compared with conventional PANDA fiber. As to verifying numerical analysis, a platform based on a Michelson interferometer for phase versus temperature measurement was built for both kinds of fiber. Experiments show that PM-PCF has similar temperature sensitivity with conventional polarization-maintaining fiber. With optimized PM-PCF design (thinner coating layer and coating material with smaller thermal expansion coefficient), the sensitivity could be further reduced to about 80% of the present level.