Quantification of the fluorescence sensing performance of microstructured optical fibers compared to multi-mode fiber tips

Microstructured optical fibers, particularly those with a suspended-core geometry, have frequently been argued as efficient evanescent-field fluorescence-based sensors. However, to date there has not been a systematic comparison between such fibers and the more common geometry of a multi-mode fiber tip sensor. In this paper we make a direct comparison between these two fiber sensor geometries both theoretically and experimentally. Our results confirm that suspended-core fibers provide a significant advantage in terms of total collected fluorescence signal compared to multi-mode fibers using an equivalent experimental configuration.