Segmented detection SPR sensor based on seven-core fiber.

By using a seven-core fiber (SCF), we propose and demonstrate a novel segmented detection SPR sensor, which solves two bottlenecks about the fiber SPR sensor of low sensitivity and the difficulty in the multichannel detection. The proposed sensor has ultra high sensitivity and wide detection range because of employing the segmented detection technology. Besides that, the proposed sensor employs reflection-type time division multiplexing (TDM) technology in fiber multichannel detection for the first time. We couple light into and out of the six circularly symmetric distributed cores of the seven-core fiber to realize the three channel SPR sensing and testing. This three-channel SPR sensor has the advantages of detecting biochemical or multi analytes reactions and eliminating the distractions due to temperature fluctuations or sample composition variations and adsorption of non-target molecules to the sensor surface. This SPR sensor also has the advantages of online monitoring by inserting into the blood vessel because of its small size. Furthermore, this paper has deeply researched the relationship between the refractive index of the solution to be measured, the grinding angle of the sensing channel, the sensitivity and the detection range. In this paper, we propose a novel segmented detection method which realizes the wide detection range with the wider refractive index range of 1.333~1.395 and the narrower working bandwidth of 250nm compared with the common SPR sensor, the average sensitivity and the maximum sensitivity of the sensor reach 7387.1nm/RIU and 8502.5nm/RIU respectively.