Design and analysis of highly sensitive solid core gold-coated hexagonal photonic crystal fiber sensor based on surface plasmon resonance

In this article, a surface plasmon-based hexagonal photonic crystal fiber sensor is numerically computed and studied. Metallic layer thickness and lattice period are optimized to 30 nm and 1.75 µm respectively to enhance the sensor performance. Sensor sensitivity is obtained by employing the finite element method by enclosing the structure with a perfectly matched layer. This studied sensor uncovers the wavelength sensitivity of 8000nm/RIU, amplitude sensitivity of 3959 /RIU, and minimum detection ability of 1.25x10− 5 RIU for the analyte refractive index range from 1.36 to 1.40. The simulated results’ variations are also analyzed by altering the metallic layer thickness, lattice period, and air hole diameter. The computed PCF sensor might be a promising aspirant in the area of chemical sensing, bio-molecule detection, and biological sample recognition.