Infrared SPR sensitivity enhancement using ITO/TiO2/silicon overlays

An extremely high sensitive surface-plasmon-resonance-based fiber optic sensing probe working in the infrared region of electromagnetic spectrum has been proposed and characterized theoretically. The optimized fiber probe is designed by coating 40 nm of indium tin oxide (ITO), 9nm of titanium dioxide (TiO2) and a field enhancing 26 nm of silicon layers on a multimode bare fiber core. The probe is characterized for refractive index range of 1.33 to 1.37 refractive index unit (RIU). The highest sensitivity and figure of merit for optimized probe design parameters are found to be 15.07 mu m/RIU and 18.962 RIU-1, respectively at sensing medium refractive index 1.37 RIU. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2015