This paper aims to improve the refractive index sensor performance for analytes with large refractive index by adopting the technology of microstructured fiber (MF) and surface plasmon resonance (SPR).
The structure adopts an MF with a hexagonal lattice cladding structure composed of all-circular air holes, and three defect regions are introduced. The liquid analyte that needs to be tested is filled in the defect area. The surface plasmon polarition mode is generated and coupled with the core mode, thus forming a refractive index sensing channel. When the resonance conditions are satisfied, the resonance wavelength will be changed with the refractive index of the liquid analyte. All parameters that may affect the performance of the sensor are numerical simulated, and the structure is optimized through a large number of calculations.
The results demonstrate that the maximum dynamic sensitivity (SR) can reach to 24,260 nm/RIU, and the average sensitivity (SR-AV) can reach to 18,046 nm/RIU when the refractive index range is from 1.42 to 1.47. Besides, the sensitivity linearity (R2) is approximately 0.965, and its resolution is 4.1 × 10–6 RIU. The comparison with some literature results shown that the proposed sensor has certain advantages over the sensors reported in these literatures.
This work proposed an SPR-based refractive index sensor with a simple MF structure. It has a certain reference significance for the design and optimization of SPR-based MF sensors. Moreover, owing to its simple structure, high refractive index sensitivity and linear sensing performance, this sensor will play an important role in the detection of high refractive index liquid analytes.
