Abstract
A plasmonic sensor based on a dual-side polished photonic crystal fiber operating in a telecommunication wavelength range is proposed and investigated numerically by the finite element method (FEM). We study the effects of structural parameters on the sensor’s performance and analyze their tuning effects on loss spectra. As a result, two configurations are found when the analyte refractive index (RI) changes from 1.395 to 1.415. For configuration 1, an RI resolution of 9.39 × 10−6, an average wavelength sensitivity of 10,650 nm/RIU (the maximum wavelength sensitivity is 12,400 nm/RIU), an amplitude sensitivity of 252 RIU−1 and a linearity of 0.99692 are achieved. For configuration 2, the RI resolution, average wavelength sensitivity, amplitude sensitivity and linearity are 1.19 × 10−5, 8400 nm/RIU, 85 RIU−1 and 0.98246, respectively. The combination of both configurations can broaden the wavelength range for the sensing detection. Additionally, the sensor has a superior figure of merit (FOM) to a single-side polished design. The proposed sensor has a maximum wavelength sensitivity, amplitude sensitivity and RI resolution of the same order magnitude as that of existing sensors as well as higher linearity, which allows it to fulfill the requirements for modern sensing of being densely compact, amenable to integration, affordable and capable of remote sensing.
Highlights
The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) phenomenon [1] has been extensively investigated both experimentally and theoretically by scholars’ tremendous efforts in recent decades
It is well known that according to the coupled-mode theory, the incident light can be split into vertical and horizontal direction components, and only the y-polarization mode can couple with the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) mode
The Img(neff) of the graph is the imaginary part of effective refractive index (RI) for y-polarization fundamental mode, which is proportional to the modal loss
Summary
The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) phenomenon [1] has been extensively investigated both experimentally and theoretically by scholars’ tremendous efforts in recent decades. PCFs have been widely recognized in the optical transmission field since 1996 They introduce the principle that the photonic crystal can modulate the electromagnetic wave with the corresponding wavelength into the fiber; cladding micro-nano dimension air pores arranged in the form of photonic crystals can regulate light propagation in PCFs. The excellent feature of PCFs is their design flexibility, so dispersion, birefringence, nonlinearity, etc. Can be tailored by different air pore arrangements [5] These aspects make PCFs eye-catching in many areas and result in a wide range of applications in gas-based nonlinear optics, atom and particle guidance, ultrahigh nonlinearities, rare-earth doped lasers and sensing fields. Wavelength interrogation and amplitude interrogation methods [17] are implemented, and the major performance of the sensor is simulated by the finite element method (FEM) [18] using COMSOL software
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