Anomalous Sensitivity Enhancement of D-Shaped Fiber-Based Sandwiched Structure Optofluidic Sensor

Abstract

A novel mechanism of sensitivity enhancement of D-shaped fiber-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors for the optofluidic device has been proposed. The sandwiched structure optofluidic platform is developed with metal-coated D-shaped fiber as the sensing device, while another thin metal layer is situated under the inner wall of the substrate as a second metal layer to construct the sandwiched microchannel. It has been found that the sensitivity of the D-type fiber SPR sensor is enhanced significantly with the sandwiched metal-coated structure of microchannel. In the proposed structure, the measurand analyte is considered as a sandwich channel layer between two thin metal layers. The sensitivity of the proposed structure is dependent on the volume of the measurand and the thickness of the metal layers. The computed sensitivity with a double metal layer and sandwich measurand layer concept is 4085 nm/RIU in the region of 1.33 to 1.36. The sensitivity is enhanced by more than a factor of `2.3' in comparison with the sensitivity of the normal D-shape fiber SPR sensor. It can be enhanced further up to ~12,500 nm/RIU by the deposition of higher RI polymeric overlay just above the second metal layer. The computed resolution of the proposed sensor with standard interrogation technique is ~1 × 10-7 which is quite competitive within the optical fiber sensor domain. A detailed numerical analysis has been accomplished. This structure will be useful in distinct chemical and biological sensing applications where the volume of an analyte is critical. This new concept of enhancement of sensitivity with limited measurand volume will open a new designing methodology for optical fiber biosensors.

Keywords

• Optical fiber sensors
• chemical sensors
• optofluidic
• surface plasmon resonance