Label free detection for DNA hybridization using surface plasmon photonic crystal fiber biosensor

In this paper, a novel design of a highly sensitive surface plasmon (SP) photonic crystal fiber (PCF) biosensor for DNA hybridization detection is presented and analyzed. Through this study, the coupling between the core guided modes in a silica core D-shaped PCF and the SP modes around the gold nano-wires is studied and verified. Further, the structural geometrical parameters of the proposed biosensors are adjusted to achieve the highest sensitivity for DNA hybridization detection. The analysis is carried out using full vectorial finite element method. The proposed biosensor achieves a high sensitivity of 94.59 nm/RIU. To the best of the author's knowledge, it is the first time to introduce a label free SP PCF DNA biosensor with high sensitivity. Moreover, the structure of the suggested sensor is easy for fabrication with standard PCF fabrication technologies. Furthermore, the suggested biosensor has a great potential for DNA classification based applications.