Long-range surface plasmon resonance sensor based on the GK570/Ag coated hollow fiber with an asymmetric layer structure.

A long-range surface plasmon resonance (LRSPR) sensor based on GK570/Silver coated hollow fiber (HF) with an asymmetric layer structure is proposed. A set of proposed sensors with different layer thicknesses were fabricated by the liquid phase coating method. Both theoretical and experimental analyses were carried out to evaluate the performances of the fabricated sensors, such as sensitivity, figure of merit (FOM) and detection range. The theoretical results based on the ray modal agreed well with the experimental results. The highest experimentally obtained sensitivity and FOM were over 12500 nm/RIU and 150 RIU-1, respectively. The FOM was approximately ten times that of the HF SPR sensor. Moreover, compared to the HF LRSPR sensor with a symmetric layer structure, the proposed sensor has a much larger sensitivity and an approximately double FOM without sacrificing other advantages of the HF LRSPR sensor.