Improved performance of SPR sensors by a chemical etching of tapered optical fibers

©2011 Elsevier Ltd. This work has been partially supported by Spanish Ministry of Science research projects SPRINT (CTQ2009-10550) and MAX-MART (CTQ2009-14565-C03-01), and the Community of Madrid research grants FACTOTEM II (S2009/ESP-1781) and FUTURSEN (CM-S-505/AMB/0374) as well as the European Social Fund and the European Fund for Regional Development.
We present the results of a chemical attack on the optical fiber surface previous to the deposition of the double layer (metal plus dielectric) in Double-layer uniform-waist tapered fibers (DLUWTs) used for the development of SPR sensors. It is shown how this simple chemical treatment increases the roughness of the surface and permits improvement of the stability of the deposits and the general performance of the sensors. The obtained devices are robust and very compact, their sensitivity is good and repeatability of the measurements is remarkably increased. The procedure can be useful for any fiber-optic sensor.
Comunidad de Madrid
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN)
European Social Fund
European Fund for Regional Development
Depto. de Óptica
Fac. de Ciencias Físicas
TRUE
pub