A novel water-core micro-structure fiber design allows nearly ideal guidance for aqueous sensing applications. The total internal reflection by a micro-structured silica-air cladding provides robust confinement of light in a fluid-filled core, if the average cladding index is sufficiently below the index of water. Numerical results show dramatically improved loss and overlap of light with the sample, compared to evanescent-field fibers, indicating a direct improvement of sensor performance. A strategy for the improvement of evanescent-wave gas sensors is also discussed.|A novel water-core micro-structure fiber design allows nearly ideal guidance for aqueous sensing applications. The total internal reflection by a micro-structured silica-air cladding provides robust confinement of light in a fluid-filled core, if the average cladding index is sufficiently below the index of water. Numerical results show dramatically improved loss and overlap of light with the sample, compared to evanescent-field fibers, indicating a direct improvement of sensor performance. A strategy for the improvement of evanescent-wave gas sensors is also discussed.

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