High sensitivity surface plasmon resonance sensor based on D-shaped photonic crystal fiber with circular layout.

Highlights • The proposed PCF structure is a combination of circular layout and D-shaped. • The gold film is deposited on the polishing surface, the analyte is placed on the outer layer of the D-shaped PCF. • The proposed PCF sensor is feasible for the structural parameters with fabrication tolerance of ±1%. • The proposed sensor easy to fabricate and has high sensitivity. Abstract A high sensitivity D-shaped photonic crystal fiber sensor based on surface plasmon resonance is proposed for refractive index sensing. By using finite element method, the sensing properties of the proposed sensor are investigated. The numerical results show a very high average sensitivity of 14600 nm/RIU with the high resolution of 6.80 × 10−6 RIU for refractive index (RI) of analytes ranging from 1.420 to 1.435. The layout of the air holes is designed to be circular and only two layers in this D-shaped photonic crystal fiber. The metallic gold is used as the surface plasmon resonance activity material, which is deposited on the polishing surface. The analyte is placed on the outer layer of the D-shaped photonic crystal fiber. This D-shaped photonic crystal fiber solves the difficulty of gold-plated film and fill analyte in the holes. The proposed PCF structure is a combination of circular layout and D-shaped, which also leads to the proposed sensor easy to fabricate and has considerable sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]