An LSPR fiber optic sensor based on in-line micro-holes fabricated by a second harmonic 400nm femtosecond laser

Abstract

In this study, we have proposed a novel type of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) fiber optic sensor based on in-line/pico-liter micro-holes which can be experimentally fabricated into the fiber waveguide by using a second harmonic 400 nm femtosecond laser. A repetitive pulse train of 1 kHz with a pulse width of 350 fs was irradiated onto a MMGI fiber optic to make three holes that penetrate through the fiber core and work as spectroscopic-microfluidic flow cells. In order to induce the interaction between transmitted light and gold nanoparticles (GNPs) adhered on the inner surface of the flow cells, micro-holes were designed to be the width of approximately 50 μm, along a direction perpendicular to an optical axis of an optical fiber. GNPs with approximately 100 nm of particle diameter adhered onto the inner surface according to 3-aminopropyltriethoxy silane treatment. The transmitted light through the micro-holes was obtained by optical instruments consisted of a white light source and an optical spectrum analyzer. In order to obtain the reference spectrum, the optical spectrum was acquired before dipping the sensor into the GNPs solution. After 30 min of immersing the sensor portion into the GNPs solution, the optical spectrum was also obtained. The reference spectrum which was considered as the baseline, was set to zero and then, the absorbance spectrum was calculated. The absorbance peak at a wavelength of 537 nm occurred in an air condition in the sensing area, which seemed like the resonance peak based on the LSPR.