Surface plasmon resonance temperature sensor with tunable detection range based on a silver-coated multi-hole optical fiber.

Abstract

A novel surface plasmon resonance (SPR) temperature sensor based on a silver-coated multi-hole optical fiber (SMHOF) is presented. The central and surrounding air holes of the SMHOF are filled with two kinds of thermosensitive liquid with high and low refractive index (RI), respectively. Two separated resonance dips, which are related to the high and low RI filled liquid respectively, are observed at different wavelength in the transmission spectrum. Advantageously, the two dips move towards opposite direction with the temperature variation. The interval between the two SPR dips is measured under different environmental temperature and exhibits a good linearity. The proposed sensor with different detection range is fabricated by changing the RIs of the filled thermosensitive liquids. The temperature sensitivity of 7.72 nm/°C and -7.81 nm/°C is obtained in the range of 20-60 °C and -20-20 °C, respectively. Owing to the high temperature sensitivity and tunable detection range, the proposed sensor is expected to find potential applications in biomedicine, health care and environmental monitoring.