Abstract

A photonic crystal fiber–surface plasmon resonance (PCF-SPR)-based refractive index (RI) sensor with a novel design is presented in this paper. This sensor detects the anomalies in the sample analyte by detecting the change in its RI. Silver (Ag) is used as a plasmonic material with a unique terracotta structure to sense the RI variations in the surrounding medium, also called an analyte or sample. A thin layer of titanium dioxide (TiO2) measuring 10 nm is applied on top of the plasmonic material to prevent the oxidation of silver. The designed sensor detected a good range of analyte RI from 1.31 to 1.40 with the maximum amplitude sensitivity (SA) and wavelength sensitivity (SW) of 453.85 RIU−1 and 25000 nmRIU−1, respectively. Moreover, the amplitude resolution (RA) and wavelength resolution (RW) of the sensor are measured as low as 2.203 x 10−5 RIU and 4 x 10−6 RIU, respectively. However, we further investigated the figure of merit (FOM) of our proposed sensor and achieved a maximum FOM of 174.8 RIU−1 which is enough for sensing. COMSOL Multiphysics is employed to accurately design and precisely evaluate key performance parameters of the sensor such as confinement loss, resonance wavelength, and sensitivity under various design conditions. The proposed unique terracotta structure, with a metallic strip for sensing on top, has simple and easy fabrication. Moreover, this RI sensor is useful in detecting a wide spectrum of applications falling in the range between 1.31 and 1.40, which include analytes like cancer cells; biomolecules: ribonucleic acid (RNA); deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA); glucose; proteins; carbohydrates, chemical analytes: alcohol; glycerol; organic acid; saline solutions; other water-based impurities along with pharmaceutical monitoring, environmental monitoring, and industrial analysis.

Department(s)

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Keywords and Phrases

Photonic crystal fiber (PCF); Refractive index (RI); Surface plasmon resonance (SPR)

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1557-1963; 1557-1955

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2025 Springer, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2025

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