Invited] Optimally configured multi-layer optical fiber plasmonic resonance sensor based on the orthogonal design method

Abstract

A generic tool for the optimal design of multi-layer sensing structure of the optical fiber plasmonic resonance based on the orthogonal design method is proposed and demonstrated. The orthogonal design method is conducted to determine the optimal type and thickness of coating materials using a finite number of solutions. A novel three-layer sensing structure with enhanced spectral characteristic of resonance is developed to evaluate the feasibility of the orthogonal design method. The sensitivity and the figure of merit of the resonance optimized for the type and the thickness of coating materials achieve up to 3560 nm/RIU and 62.129 RIU−1, respectively. Such sensitivity is 97.7 % higher than that of the sensor with 40-nm single Au layer. Meanwhile, the efficiency of the analysis combination is increased by up to mk-2-1×100%. Our work is focused on the multi-structure parameter design of optical fiber plasmonic resonance sensors and can achieve the optimized configuration of the sensing performance. It has demonstrated the promising prospects in the flexible design of the plasmonic resonance curve and in the high-sensitivity and multi-parameter detection of the plasmonic resonance.