Theoretical analysis of double-microfluidic-channels photonic crystal fiber sensor based on silver nanowires

Double-large-microfluidic-channels photonic crystal fiber (PCF) sensors filled with silver nanowires are presented to achieve localized surface plasmon resonance sensors and to overcome the manipulating difficulty in implementing the experimentation. Optical field distribution of the fiber at a certain wavelength is calculated and simulated using the finite element method (FEM), and the sensing properties are discussed in both areas of resonant wavelength and intensity detection. Numerical results show excellent sensing characteristics when diameter and amount of silver nanowires are selected at d=300 nm and m=5, respectively. Besides, spectral and amplitude sensitivities are 4400 nm/RIU and 1407 dB/RIU, respectively. Furthermore, the sensor resolutions are 2.3 x 10(-6) RIU and 3.1 x 10(-5) RIU, respectively. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.