Fiber-optic refractive index sensor based on surface plasmon resonance

A fiber-optic refractive index sensor based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) in a thin metal film deposited on an unclad core of a multimode fiber is presented. The sensing element of the SPR fiber-optic sensor is a bare core of a step-index optical fiber made of fused silica with a deposited gold film. First, a model of the SPR fiber-optic sensor based on the theory of attenuated total internal reflection is presented. The analysis is carried out in the frame of optics of multilayered media. The sensing scheme uses a wavelength interrogation method and the calculations are performed over a broad spectral range. Second, in a practical realization of the sensor with a double-sided sputtered gold film, a reflection-based sensing scheme to measure the refractive indices of liquids is considered. The refractive index of a liquid is sensed by measuring the position of the dip in the reflected spectral intensity distribution. As an example, the aqueous solutions of ethanol with refractive indices in a range from 1.333 to 1.364 are measured.