A Polished-D-Shape SPR-Based Photonic Crystal Fiber Sensor with High Sensitivity for Measuring Refractive Index

Abstract

In the correspondence, a novel polished-D-shape photonic crystal fiber sensor structure on the basis of surface plasmon resonance is proposed for measuring analyte refractive index. With the help of the finite element method, sensing performances of the structure have been analyzed through numerical simulations along with a step-by-step optimization. In this design, different capillaries are gathered and processed to form a D-shape silica structure and nano-scale gold material is coated on the flattened surface. With utilization of a thin gold film and solid silica background, the resonance effect is excited and the loss curve has red shift along with an increase in refractive index, which is applied for sensing. From the simulation and calculation results, the final sensor structure achieves the optimal performance where values of maximum and average sensitivity reach 32,000 and 12,167 nm/RIU along with a sensing coverage of refractive index from 1.26 to 1.32. Also, the proposed design obtains a range of resonant wavelength from 1810 to 2540 nm. We believe the proposed sensor can be a potential candidate for organic and biological detection and related applications.

Keywords

• photonic crystal fiber
• surface plasmon resonance
• refractive index sensor