  We propose and experimentally demonstrate a low-refractive-index-contrast
hollow-core Bragg fiber sensor for liquid analyte refractive index detection.
The sensor operates using a resonant sensing principle- when the refractive
index of a liquid analyte in the fiber core changes, the resonant confinement
of the fiber guided mode will also change, leading to both the spectral shifts
and intensity changes in fiber transmission. As a demonstration, we
characterize the Bragg fiber sensor using a set of NaCl solutions with
different concentrations. Strong spectral shifts are obtained with the sensor
experimental sensitivity found to be ~1400nm/RIU (refractive index unit).
Besides, using theoretical modeling we show that low-refractive-index-contrast
Bragg fibers are more suitable for liquid-analyte sensing applications than
their high-refractive-index-contrast counterparts.
