Plasmonic Photonic Crystal Fiber Refractive Index Sensor Based on External Sensing

A double core photonic crystal fiber (PCF) refractive index (RI) sensor is proposed in this work established on surface plasmon resonance (SPR). The PCF-SPR based RI sensor is investigated numerically by using finite element method (FEM). The sensor performance is studied with the methods of wavelength and amplitude interrogation. Numerical analysis of the sensor shows that it can detect analyte RI in the range of 1.33 to 1.41. The proposed sensor demonstrates maximum wavelength sensitivity of 19,500 nm/RIU and 17,000 nm/RIU for x- and y- polarization, respectively. In addition, the sensor exhibits the maximum amplitude sensitivity of 947 RIU
^-1
and 727 RIU
^-1
for x- and y- polarization, respectively. The high sensitivity and wide sensing range indicate that the proposed sensor can be used to identify unknown biological and biochemical analytes.