Plasmonic crystal cavity on single-mode optical fiber end facet for label-free biosensing

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) devices on single-mode optical fiber (SMF) end facets are desired for label-free biosensing, due to flexible light delivery, in vivo inspection capability, and seamless integration with fiber-optic communication techniques. We report a plasmonic crystal cavity structure that has a steep resonance near the plasmonic bandedge, a fabrication process to efficiently transfer and align the structure onto a bare SMF end facet, and characterization of its sensing performance. With a sensitivity of 571 nm RIU-1, a figure of merit of 68 RIU-1 and a real-time refractive index detection limit of 3.5 x 10(-6) RIU, our sensors can be readily applied in common SPR biosensing experiments. They are over an order of magnitude more sensitive than reported modified-end multimode fiber SPR devices, while there are no reports on previous SMF end facet devices' detection limits which have very low figures of merit. Published by AIP Publishing.