Metal–semiconductor nanocomposite layer based optical fibre surface plasmon resonance sensor

Abstract

In the present work, a novel design for a fibre optic surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor with a metal–semiconductor core–shell nanocomposite layer is proposed. The performance of the sensor is evaluated and compared for various commonly used semiconductors such as CdS, PbS, ZnO and CdSe. The capabilities of different metals such as silver and gold are analysed and compared. The performance of the sensor is evaluated in terms of its performance parameters, namely sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The present design is compared with a previously proposed design of Au–SiO2 based fibre optic SPR sensor and it is found that the present design performs much better. On the basis of the whole analysis, an optimum design is predicted in order to attain a fibre optic SPR nanosensor with maximum sensitivity and SNR.