Terahertz Sensor via Ultralow-Loss Dispersion-Flattened Polymer Optical Fiber: Design and Analysis

A novel cyclic olefin copolymer (COC)-based polymer optical fiber (POF) with a rectangular porous core is designed for terahertz (THz) sensing by the finite element method. The numerical simulations showed an ultrahigh relative sensitivity of 89.73% of the x-polarization mode at a frequency of 1.2 THz and under optimum design conditions. In addition to this, they showed an ultralow confinement loss of 2.18 × 10^-12 cm^-1, a high birefringence of 1.91 × 10^-3, a numerical aperture of 0.33, and an effective mode area of 1.65 × 10⁵ μm² was obtained for optimum design conditions. Moreover, the range dispersion variation was within 0.7 ± 0.41 ps/THz/cm, with the frequency range of 1.0-1.4 THz. Compared with the traditional sensor, the late-model sensor will have application value in THz sensing and communication.