Abstract
In this study, an opened three-hole suspended core fiber surface plasmon resonance sensor structure based on the combination of photonic crystal fiber and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) mechanism was proposed and analyzed. One hole in the clad layer was exposed to the outside, and a lay of gold cylinders with the same size and gap was placed along the inside of the opened hole. The existence of the gold cylinders could stimulate the SPR effect and selecting the suitable gaps between the cylinders could enhance the SPR effect and increase its sensitivity. Then COMSOL software was used to simulate how the cylinder diameter, the gaps between the cylinders, and the fluid refractive index variation affect the sensor’s transmission loss spectrum, field enhancement effect, and the sensitivity. The optimized results show that the sensitivity of this proposed SPR sensor could be high, up to 1 × 10−5 RIU/nm, and it was much higher than the sensitivity of the existing photonic crystal fiber SPR sensor (1 × 10−4 RIU/nm), which was an order of magnitude improvement. This study could provide a reliable theoretical basis for future research and design of real-time and high-sensitivity opened fiber SPR sensors.
Highlights
For conventional closed-hole micro-structured optical fiber for fluid testing, it takes a long time to fill the micro-holes with fluid to be measured
The results show that by optimizing the parameters such as the diameter and spacing of the gold cylinder, its sensitivity S could be greatly improved
The sensitivity of the optimized open-suspended optical fiber surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor can be as high as 1 × 10−5 RIU/nm, which is an order of magnitude greater than the sensitivity of existing photonic crystal fiber SPR sensors 1 × 10−4 RIU/nm [16]
Summary
For conventional closed-hole micro-structured optical fiber for fluid testing, it takes a long time to fill the micro-holes with fluid to be measured This slow filling rate greatly limits the application of conventional micro-structured optical fibers in fast fluidic detection [1,2,3]. The opened microstructured optical fiber is expected to enhance the degree of overlap and the interaction effect between the measured fluid and the optical field within the sensing region, thereby enhancing the sensing performance while achieving rapid detection at the same time [4,5]. By optimizing the optical fiber structure, sensing mechanism and signal demodulation methods [6], opened microstructured optical fiber fluidic sensing technology is expected to achieve. The content of this paper can provide useful reference for the design of real-time photonic crystal fiber SPR sensor in the future
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