We demonstrate a refractive index sensor based on a long period grating (LPG) inscribed in a special photosensitive microfiber with double-clad profile. The fiber is tapered gradually enough to ensure the adiabaticity of the fiber taper. In other words, the resulting insertion loss is sufficiently small. The boron and germanium co-doped inner cladding makes it suitable for inscribing gratings into its tapered form. The manner of wavelength shift for refractive indices (RIs) differs from conventional LPG, and the refractive index detection limit is 1.67 × 10⁻⁵.

A new structure of Long-Period Gratings (LPGs) sensor is introduced as a sensitive ambient RI sensor. This structure consists of creating periodic corrugations on the cladding of the LPG. The experimental results show that this LPG structure has good performances in terms of linearity and sensitivity and serves as a highly sensitive and cost-effective sensor. It also has the advantage of portability as the corrugation can also serve as the reservoir for the specimen collection to be tested.