Spiral Photonic Crystal Fiber-Based Dual-Polarized Surface Plasmon Resonance Biosensor

Abstract

We numerically demonstrate a surface plasmon resonance biosensor-based on dual-polarized spiral photonic crystal fiber (PCF). Chemically stable gold material is used as the active plasmonic material, which is placed on the outer layer of the PCF to facilitate practical fabrication. Finite-element method-based numerical investigations show that the proposed biosensor shows maximum wavelength sensitivity of 4600 and 4300 nm/RIU in x-and y-polarized modes at an analyte refractive index of 1.37. Moreover, for analyte refractive index ranging from 1.33 to 1.38, maximum amplitude sensitivities of 371.5 RIU <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-1</sup> and 420.4 RIU <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-1</sup> are obtained in xand y-polarized modes, respectively. In addition, the effects of changing pitch, different air hole diameter of the PCF and thickness of the gold layer on the sensing performance are also investigated. Owing to high sensitivity, improved sensing resolution and appropriate linearity characteristics, the proposed dual-polarized spiral PCF can be implemented for the detection of biological analytes, organic chemicals, biomolecules, and other unknown analytes.