Theoretical modeling of a localized surface plasmon resonance based intensity modulated fiber optic refractive index sensor

A localized surface plasmon resonance based fiber optic sensor for refractive index sensing has been analyzed theoretically The effects of size of the spherical metal nanoparticle as well as the light sources on the performance of the sensor have been studied rigorously. It is observed that a diffuse light source along with an intensity modulation method gives better performance in terms of sensing range. In addition, the use of a diffuse source makes the sensing device very cheap and compact, which is an important issue for the commercial applications. The refractive index range of the sensor is larger than the ranges reported for various types of fiber optic sensors utilizing intensity modulation. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America