Surface plasmon resonance sensor based on D-type fiber with a gold wire

We propose a refractive index sensor based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) in a gold wire partially incrusted on the surface of a D-type fiber and in contact with the external medium for increased sensitivity and roughness. The sensor is studied using numerical simulations based on the finite element method (FEM) and is compared with a more conventional D-type fiber SPR where the wire is replaced with a gold film. The numerical work estimates the sensitivity and resolution for different analytic refractive indexes (RI) in the range of 1.30-1.40, for a sensor based on the wavelength interrogation method. The results indicate that the use of the gold wire provides a better sensitivity when compared with the gold film, while supporting multiple peaks in different wavelengths, each with distinct values of sensitivity and resolution. (C) 2017 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.