Refractive index and temperature dual parameter sensor based on twin-core photonic crystal fiber

A twin-core photonic crystal fiber sensor is proposed for measuring liquid refractive index (RI) and temperature simultaneously. The air holes of the sensor are arranged in a hexagonal pattern, and two planes are introduced by polishing in the cladding. On one side of the plane, the gold film is deposited for RI measurement, and on the other side, the gold film and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) are deposited for temperature measurement. We analyzed its sensing characteristics by using finite element method. The numerical results show that the two channels for measuring RI and temperature have no mutual interference. It reduces the complexity of the sensing measurement. The maximum spectral sensitivity of the sensor is 20000 nm/RIU and 9.2 nm/℃, respectively, when the liquid RI is in the range of 1.36-1.42 and the temperature is in the range of 0-50 ℃. The results also show the sensing accuracy was not very sensitive to the change of structural parameters. It hence makes the sensor be easy to fabricate. Our work is very helpful for implementation of a high sensitivity, easy fabrication and real-time multi-parameter SPR sensor.

Numerical study of a highly sensitive surface plasmon resonance sensor based on circular-lattice holey fiber

A new design of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor employing circular-lattice holey fiber to achieve high-sensitivity detection is proposed. The sensing performance of the proposed sensor is numerically investigated and the study results indicate that our proposed SPR sensor can be applied to the near-mid infrared detection. Moreover, the maximum wavelength sensitivity of our proposed sensor can reach as high as 1.76×104 nm/refractive index unit (RIU) and the maximum wavelength interrogation resolution can be up to 5.68×10-6 RIU when the refractive index (RI) of analyte lies in (1.31, 1.36). Thanks to its excellent sensing performance, our proposed SPR sensor will have great potential applications for biological analytes detection, food safety control, bio-molecules detection and so on.

Selective Detection of Penicillin G Antibiotic in Milk by Molecularly Imprinted Polymer-Based Plasmonic SPR Sensor

Molecularly imprinted polymer-based surface plasmon resonance sensor prepared using silver nanoparticles was designed for the selective recognition of Penicillin G (PEN-G) antibiotic from both aqueous solution and milk sample. PEN-G imprinted sensors (NpMIPs) SPR sensor was fabricated using poly (2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate-N-methacroyl-(L)-cysteine methyl ester)-silver nanoparticles-N-methacryloyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester polymer by embedding silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) into the polymeric film structure. In addition, a non-imprinted (NpNIPs) SPR sensor was prepared by utilizing the same polymerization recipe without addition of the PEN-G template molecule to evaluate the imprinting effect. FTIR-ATR spectrophotometer, ellipsometer, contact angle measurements were used for the characterization of NpMIPs SPR sensors. The linear concentration range of 0.01–10 ng/mL PEN-G was studied for kinetic analyses. The augmenting effect of AgNPs used to increase the surface plasmon resonance signal response was examined using polymer-based PEN-G imprinted (MIPs) sensor without the addition of AgNPs. The antibiotic amount present in milk chosen as a real sample was measured by spiking PEN-G into the milk. According to the Scatchard, Langmuir, Freundlich and Langmuir–Freundlich adsorption models, the interaction mechanism was estimated to be compatible with the Langmuir model.