Hydrogen peroxide and glucose concentration measurement using optical fiber grating sensors with corrodible plasmonic nanocoatings.

We propose and demonstrate hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and glucose concentration measurements using a plasmonic optical fiber sensor. The sensor utilizes a tilted fiber Bragg grating (TFBG) written in standard single mode communication fiber. The fiber is over coated with an nm-scale film of silver that supports surface plasmon resonances (SPRs). Such a tilted grating SPR structure provides a high density of narrow spectral resonances (Q-factor about 105) that overlap with the broader absorption band of the surface plasmon waves in the silver film, thereby providing an accurate tool to measure small shifts of the plasmon resonance frequencies. The H2O2 to be detected acts as an oxidant to etch the silver film, which has the effect of gradually decreasing the SPR attenuation. The etching rate of the silver film shows a clear relationship with the H2O2 concentration so that monitoring the progressively increasing attenuation of a selected surface plasmon resonance over a few minutes enables us to measure the H2O2 concentration with a limit of detection of 0.2 μM. Furthermore, the proposed method can be applied to the determination of glucose in human serum for a concentration range from 0 to 12 mM (within the physiological range of 3-8 mM) by monitoring the H2O2 produced by an enzymatic oxidation process. The sensor does not require accurate temperature control because of the inherent temperature insensitivity of TFBG devices referenced to the core mode resonance. A gold mirror coated on the fiber allows the sensor to work in reflection, which will facilitate the integration of the sensor with a hypodermic needle for in vitro measurements. The present study shows that Ag-coated TFBG-SPR can be applied as a promising type of sensing probe for optical detection of H2O2 and glucose detection in human serum.