Wide Detection Range and Sensitivity Enhanced Dual Eccentric-Core D-Shaped Photonic Crystal Fiber Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensor.

In this paper, we propose and numerically characterize the optical characteristics of a dual eccentric-core D-shaped photonic crystal fiber (PCF) surface plasmon resonance (SPR) refractive index (RI) sensor. The dual eccentric-core structure can leak more power to plasma film to excite SPR phenomenon than conventional structures. We investigate the influences induce by diameter of air holes, distance between air holes and thickness of gold film. The results show that our sensor has the wavelength sensitivities (WS) of 44,000 nm/RIU for odd mode and 39,000 nm/RIU for even mode. Moreover, the sensor has the detection range of RI from 1.00 to 1.37, the maximum figure-of-merit (FOM) of 325/RIU, maximum resolution of 2.27 × 10−6 RIU for analyte RI change of 0.1 nm, and the minimum full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 56 nm. The sensor has wide application prospects in methane, blood plasma, and methanol detecting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]