Graphene-Coated Highly Sensitive Photonic Crystal Fiber Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensor for Aqueous Solution: Design and Numerical Analysis

Alok Kumar Paul,Md Zahid Hassan,Md Aslam Mollah,Nelson Gomez-Cardona,Erick Reyes-Vera

doi:10.3390/photonics8050155

Abstract

This paper presents the design and analysis of a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor in a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) platform, where graphene is used externally to attain improved sensing performance for an aqueous solution. The performance of the proposed sensor was analyzed using the finite element method-based simulation tool COMSOL Multiphysics. According to the simulation results, the proposed sensor exhibits identical linear characteristics as well as a very high figure of merit (FOM) of 2310.11 RIU−1 in the very low detection limit of 10−3. The analysis also reveals the maximum amplitude sensitivity of 14,847.03 RIU−1 and 7351.82 RIU−1 for the x and y polarized modes, respectively, which are high compared to several previously reported configurations. In addition, the average wavelength sensitivity is 2000 nm/RIU which is comparatively high for the analyte refractive index (RI) ranging from 1.331 to 1.339. Hence, it is highly expected that the proposed PCF-based SPR sensor can be a suitable candidate in different sensing applications, especially for aqueous solutions.

Highlights

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors have a vast range of applications because of their real-time interrogation and label-free monitoring
For a particular analyte/sample, the resonance occurs at a particular wavelength due to the phase matching between core mode and surface plasmon polariton (SPP) mode
We proposed a high sensitivity refractive index (RI) sensor based on a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) coated with a graphene layer

Summary

Introduction

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors have a vast range of applications because of their real-time interrogation and label-free monitoring. Due to their highly sensitive nature, they are widely used in fields such as bio-imaging, bio-detection, miniaturization and integration, food safety, medical diagnostics, and blood cell detection [1,2,3]. The SPR concept was further improved by Otto [5], and Kretschmann [6], and has been widely used under prism-based configuration. The performance of the prism-based SPR sensors has been satisfactory, their bulkiness and the requirements of moving components limit their longevity and potential for remote sensing applications [7,8,9]

Methods

Results

Conclusion