An Intensity Demodulated Refractive Index Sensor Based on A Hollow-Core Anti-Resonant Fiber

A robust and simple mid-infrared hollow-core anti-resonant fiber (ARF) based refractive index (RI) sensor with an intensity demodulation method is presented and analyzed for monitoring liquid analytes. The ARF allows liquid analytes to flow through its hollow area for detection. To obtain ideal sensing performance, an epsilon negative (ENG) material is introduced into the selected anti-resonant tube. With the high absorption of the ENG material, only one fundamental mode is available for detection and is sensitive to the RI variation of analytes. Moreover, the effects of structural parameters on the sensing performances are discussed and analyzed to further understand the mechanism and optimization. The final result shows that the ARF sensor can exhibit a high sensitivity of -372.58 dB/RIU at a fixed wavelength within a broad RI range from 1.33 to 1.45, which covers most liquid analytes. It is a promising candidate for chemical and environmental analysis. Additionally, it has the potential for deep research to feed diverse applications.

Independently tunable dual resonant dip refractive index sensor based on metal-insulator-metal waveguide with Q-shaped resonant cavity

A plasmonic resonator system consisting of a metal-insulator-metal waveguide and a Q-shaped resonant cavity is proposed in this paper. The transmission properties of surface plasmon polaritons in this structure are investigated using the finite difference in time domain (FDTD) method, and the simulation results contain two resonant dips. And the physical mechanism is studied by the multimode interference coupled mode theory (MICMT), the theoretical results are in highly consistent with the simulation results. Furthermore, the parameters of the Q-shaped cavity can be controlled to adjust two dips respectively. The refractive index sensor with a sensitivity of 1578nm/RIU and figure of merit (FOM) of 175, performs better than most of the similar structures. Therefore, the results of the study are instructive for the design and application of high sensitivity nanoscale refractive index sensors.

An Asymmetric Grating Refractive Index Sensor Generating Quasi-Bound States in the Continuum with High Figure of Merit and Temperature Self-Compensation

A subwavelength asymmetric grating refractive index (RI) sensor based on quasi-bound states in the continuum (q-BIC) with temperature self-compensation was proposed. The sensor structure consisted of a Prism / Asymmetric grating / Analytes, where the grating layers were periodically arranged asymmetric silicon (Si) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The asymmetry of the structure led to the fact that the tangential field component and the radiative field component in the grating layer were no longer in a fully decoupled state at the resonance position, creating two extremely narrow q-BIC resonance peaks, which gave the sensor a high Figure of Merit (FOM) and a low detection limit (DL). In addition, the thermo-optical coefficient of the materials made one of the resonance peaks more sensitive to temperature changes, realizing the temperature self-compensation of RI detection and thus improving the detection accuracy. From the results, reducing the asymmetry of the structure by modifying the parameters could theoretically make FOM > 5.1*106 RIU-1 and DL < 9.8*10-9 RIU. For the RI sensor with temperature self-compensation, FOM = 3057.85 RIU-1 and DL = 1.64*10-5 RIU for the RI, FOM = 0.88 °C-1 and DL = 0.057 °C for the temperature. These findings could effectively improve the temperature interference resistance of the sensor and thus the accuracy of trace substance detection.

Plasmonic Refractive Index Sensor and Plasmonic Bandpass Filter Including Waveguide and Four Teeth Based On Fano Resonances

A plasmonic refractive index sensor including a Metal-Insulator-Metal waveguide (MIM) with four teeth is proposed. Transmittance (T), Sensitivity (S) and Figure of Merit (FOM) investigated numerically and analysed via Finite Difference Time Domain method (FDTD). The simulation results show the generation of double Fano resonances in the system that the resonance wavelength and the resonance line-shapes can be adjusted by changing the geometry of the device. By optimizing the structure in the initial configuration, the maximum sensitivity of 1078nm/RIU and FOM of 3.62×105 is achieved. Then change the structure parameters. In this case, the maximum sensitivity and FOM are 1041nm/RIU and 2.94×104 respectively, thus two detection points can be used for the refractive index sensor. Due to proper performance and adjustable Fano resonance points, this structure is significant for fabricating sensitive refractive index sensor and plasmonic bandpass filter.

Numerical investigation of gold plated single-core photonic crystal fiber-based refractive index sensor

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-based single-core photonic crystal fiber (PCF) biosensor is investigated with external gold coating. All the geometrical parameters such as a gold layer, an analyte layer, a lattice period and cladding air holes are optimized to enhance the sensing ability of the sensor by introducing the finite element method. The designed sensor is able to achieve the highest amplitude sensitivity (AS) of 2258.95 RIU[Formula: see text] with an acceptable refractive index sensitivity (RIS) of 6000 nm/RIU over the analyte refractive index (ARI) span of 1.31–1.40. This sensor can detect a slight index alteration in the sensing medium using a resolution of [Formula: see text] and a high figure of merit (FOM) of 79.01. With the enhanced modal behavior with simple geometry, the resulting sensor can be suitable for real-time monitoring in biological, biochemical and bio-imaging applications.