Theoretical investigation of absorption and sensitivity of nano-plasmonic fiber optic sensors

In this paper, fiber-optic sensor based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is considered. The fiber-optic sensor is coated with thin nanoparticle metallic films. The nanoparticle metallic film consists of spherical metallic nanoparticles embedded in a host material. It is shown that sensitivity and absorption of sensor depends on number and type of films. It theoretically analyzed that the different states such as, fiber-optic sensor with a single thin layer of spherical gold or silver nanoparticle and a bimetallic arrangement of silver and gold nanoparticles. It also studied dependence of the sensitivity and absorption of sensor on the parameters such as gold particle size, film thickness, refractive index of host material, sensing region length, fiber core diameter, maximum absorption wavelength, half maximum width of the sensing medium and background refractive index of the sensing layer. Crown Copyright (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.