Abstract
Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) fiber sensor research has grown since the first demonstration over 20 year ago into a rich and diverse field with a wide range of optical fiber architectures, plasmonic coatings, and excitation and interrogation methods. Yet, the large diversity of SPR fiber sensor designs has made it difficult to understand the advantages of each approach. Here, we review SPR fiber sensor architectures, covering the latest developments from optical fiber geometries to plasmonic coatings. By developing a systematic approach to fiber-based SPR designs, we identify and discuss future research opportunities based on a performance comparison of the different approaches for sensing applications.
Highlights
Plasmonics is a well-established research field which has been extensively studied over the last few decades
When the propagation constant of the excitation photons matches that of the electron oscillations, Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) occurs, where part of the energy of the incident light is transferred to the Surface Plasmons (SPs)
As the resolution is proportional to the FWHM, it is more convenient to define a Figure of Merit (FOM), as the ratio between the FWHM and S, for a fair comparison between the different fiber-based SPR architectures
Summary
Plasmonics is a well-established research field which has been extensively studied over the last few decades. Substituting the prism excitation scheme with optical fibers has rapidly emerged since the early 90s, taking advantage of the cost effectiveness and miniaturization potential associated with optical fibers [7,8]. This early work on SPR fiber sensors paved the way for further development of the fiber geometries, interrogation methods and plasmonic coatings, allowing for improved sensing performance and alternative sensing modalities. Several reviews on fiber-based SPR sensors have previously been published [12,13,14,15], none presented a complete comparison of the different designs encompassing optical fiber and metallic coatings, SPR excitation and interrogation methods, and sensing applications. A comparison between the different architectures is provided based on their respective performance, followed by a discussion on future research prospects in this field
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