New Trends in the Simulation of Nanosplasmonic Optical D-Type Fiber Sensors

Abstract

This article presents a review of the numerical techniques employed in simulating plasmonic optical sensors based on metal-dielectric nanostructures, including examples, ranging from conventional D-type fiber sensors, to those based on photonic crystal D-type fibers and incorporating metamaterials, nanowires, among other new materials and components, results and applications. We start from the fundamental physical processes, such as optical and plasmonic mode coupling, and discuss the implementation of the numerical model, optical response customization and their impact in sensor performance. Finally, we examine future perspectives.

Keywords

• optical fiber sensors
• refractive index sensor
• D-type fiber
• photonic crystal fiber
• metallic nanowires
• metamaterials
• nanoplasmonics
• surface plasmon resonance
• optical mode coupling
• finite-element method
• numerical methods