D-shaped photonic crystal fiber refractive index sensor based on surface plasmon resonance.

A type of D-shaped photonic crystal fiber sensor based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is proposed for refractive index sensing and analyzed by the finite element method. The SPR effect between surface plasmon polariton modes and fiber core modes of the designed D-shaped photonic crystal fiber is used to measure the refractive index of the analyte. Numerical results show that the sensor can detect a range of refractive index ranging from 1.33 to 1.38. When the thickness of metal film is t=20  nm, the maximum sensitivity of 10,493  nm/RIU is obtained with a very high resolution of 9.53×10-6  RIU. The good sensing performance makes the proposed sensor a competitive candidate for environmental, biological, and biochemical sensing applications.