Liquid core photonic quasi-crystal fiber plasmonic refractive index sensor for wide refractive index detection range

Abstract

In this paper, a photonic quasi-crystal fiber plasmonic refractive index sensor is numerically analyzed. The fiber core is infiltrated with six hypothetical liquids, which refractive indices of them vary from 1.44 to 1.49. The reason for filling the core with different refractive index of liquids is that changeable refractive index of the core is an option to adjust the sensor performance at different intervals of analyte refractive index. Due to changes in the core refractive index, a large RI detection range from 1.38 to 1.53 is obtained and the sensor exhibits maximum spectral sensitivity of 10,000 nm/RIU. The properties of the sensor are calculated by the finite element method. The geometrical parameters of the sensor such as analyte height and gold thickness are also evaluated. The proposed sensor has a tunable capability which can be suitable for RI detection of biomedical liquid analytes in various ranges of refractive indices.