Refractive index sensor based on high-order surface plasmon resonance in gold nanofilm coated photonic crystal fiber

We propose a novel kind of wide-range refractive index optical sensor based on photonic crystal fiber (PCF) covered with nano-ring gold film. The refractive index sensing performance of the PCF sensor is analyzed and simulated by the finite element method (FEM). The refractive index liquid is infiltrated into the cladding air hole of the PCF. By comparing the sensing performance of two kinds of photonic crystal fiber structures, a wide range and high sensitivity structure is optimized. The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) excitation material is chose as gold, and large gold nanorings are embedded around the first cladding air hole of the PCF. The higher order surface plasmon modes are generated in this designed optical fiber structure. The resonance coupling between the fundamental mode and the 5th order surface plasmon polariton (SPP) modes is excited when the phase matching condition is matched. Therefore, the 3rd loss peaks appear obvious red-shift with the increase of the analyte refractive index, which shows a remarkable polynomial fitting law. The fitnesses of two structures are 0.99 and 0.98, respectively. When the range of refractive indices is from 1.40 to 1.43, the two kinds of sensors have high linear sensitivities of 1604 nm/RIU and 3978 nm/RIU, respectively. (paper)