Abstract
This paper proposes a highly sensitive surface plasmon resonance (SPR) refractive index sensor based on the photonic crystal fiber (PCF). The optical properties of the PCF are investigated by modulating the refractive index of a liquid analyte. The finite element method (FEM) is used to calculate and analyze the PCF structure. After optimization, the fiber can achieve high linearity of 0.9931 and an average refractive index sensitivity of up to 14,771.4 nm/RIU over a refractive index range from 1.47 to 1.52, with the maximum wavelength sensitivity of 18,000.5 nm/RIU. The proposed structure can be used in various sensing applications, including biological monitoring, environmental monitoring, and chemical production with the modification and analysis of the proposed structure.
Highlights
The waveguide characteristics and structural controllability of photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) [1] have led to the high popularity of the PCF-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) devices
The SPR-based optical fiber sensor has the advantages of ultra-high sensitivity [2] and resolution [3], fast response speed [4], small size [5], and real-time detection capability [6], and they have been widely applied to the environmental monitoring, disease diagnosis, biological analysis [7], and many other fields [8,9,10,11]
The two-dimension (2D) cross-sectional view of the proposed SPR-PCF refractive index sensor is shown in Figure 1a, where it can be seen that the proposed structure has four layers of air holes
Summary
The waveguide characteristics and structural controllability of photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) [1] have led to the high popularity of the PCF-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) devices. Liang et al [14] proposed a D-shaped PCF-RI sensor with a different coating combination and added Graphene and Zinc Oxide above silver as a plasmonic exciton source material, achieving an average sensitivity of 6000 nm/RIU in the refractive index range of 1.37–1.41. This sensor has excellent stability and a good specialty for oxidation resistance, but its sensitivity is two times lower than the proposed sensor and its detection range is small. Wang et al [16] proposed a refractive index sensor based on PCF with ultra-wide detection range from 1.29 to 1.49, which filled the central air holes with analyte and preformed the fiber with gold wires. High sensitivity of up to 14,771.4 nm/RIU is obtained
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