Enhanced Sensitivity of Open Channel SPR‑Based PCF Sensor Employing Plasmonic Materials for Analyte Sensing

Abstract

Highly sensitive photonic crystal fber (PCF) sensors based on the spectacle of surface plasmonic resonance (SPR) are analyzed numerically and demonstrated. The fnite element method (FEM) technique is used to examine detection performance. This study, an SPR-based PCF structure, has been proposed which achieved a maximum amplitude sensitivity of 573.83 RIU−1 and wavelength sensitivity of 6000 nm/RIU at refractive index (RI) of 1.39. Plasmonic materials such as gold (Au) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) have been implied inside the open channels of the PCF as a thin layer. The study explores different types of efects of detecting variation of gold thickness. The work also uses the simple appearance of air holes and pitch variation to achieve the best level detection performance. Moreover, a simplifed geometry of SPR-based PCF has been proposed to trim the complexity of the manufacturing process. With an improved sensitivity performance, the beneft of the sensor will also make promising progress towards the detection of unknown biological analyte. Keywords Surface plasmon resonance · Plasmonic materials · Amplitude sensitivity · Confinement loss