High resolution interrogation of tilted fiber grating SPR sensors from polarization properties measurement

Spectral Analysis Methods for Improved Resolution and Sensitivity: Enhancing SPR and LSPR Optical Fiber Sensing

Biochemical-chemical sensing with plasmonic sensors is widely performed by tracking the responses of surface plasmonic resonance peaks to changes in the medium. Interestingly, consistent sensitivity and resolution improvements have been demonstrated for gold nanoparticles by analyzing other spectral features, such as spectral inflection points or peak curvatures. Nevertheless, such studies were only conducted on planar platforms and were restricted to gold nanoparticles. In this work, such methodologies are explored and expanded to plasmonic optical fibers. Thus, we study-experimentally and theoretically-the optical responses of optical fiber-doped gold or silver nanospheres and optical fibers coated with continuous gold or silver thin films. Both experimental and numerical results are analyzed with differentiation methods, using total variation regularization to effectively minimize noise amplification propagation. Consistent resolution improvements of up to 2.2× for both types of plasmonic fibers are found, demonstrating that deploying such analysis with any plasmonic optical fiber sensors can lead to sensing resolution improvements.

Fiber Temperature Sensor Based on Vernier Effect and Optical Time Stretching Method

A novel method for ultra-sensitive and ultra-fast temperature sensing has been successfully implemented by cascading Saganc rings to generate the Vernier effect and doing the same dispersive fibers to achieve the optical time-stretching effect. This is different from the traditional point fiber sensor demodulated by optical spectrum analyzer (OSA) whose demodulation speed is usually at the second level. The designed system maps the wavelength domain to the time domain through the dispersive fiber, which can realize the ultra-fast temperature monitoring at the nanosecond level. The cascaded Sagnac ring is composed of polarization maintaining fiber (PMF) which is significantly affected by the thermal-optical coefficient. When the temperature changes, the variation is as high as -6.228 nm/°C, which is 8.5 times higher than the sensitivity based on the single Sagnac ring system. Furthermore, through the optical time stretching scheme, the corresponding response sensitivity is increased from 0.997 ns/°C to 7.333 ns/°C, and the magnification is increased 7.4 times with a response speed of 50 MHz.

Cladding Mode Fitting-Assisted Automatic Refractive Index Demodulation Optical Fiber Sensor Probe Based on Tilted Fiber Bragg Grating and SPR

In the paper based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) in a tilted fiber Bragg grating (TFBG), a novel algorithm is proposed, which facilitates demodulation of surrounding refractive index (SRI) via cladding mode interrogation and accelerates calibration and measurement of SRI. Refractive indices with a tiny index step of 2.2 × 10⁻⁵ are prepared by the dilution of glucose aqueous solution for the test and the calibration of this fiber sensor probe. To accelerate the calibration process, automatic selection of the most sensitive cladding mode is demonstrated. First, peaks of transmitted spectrum are identified and numbered. Then, sensitivities of several potentially sensitive cladding modes in amplitude adjacent to the left of the SPR area are calculated and compared. After that, we focus on the amplitudes of the cladding modes as a function of a SRI, and the highest sensitivity of −6887 dB/RIU (refractive index unit) is obtained with a scanning time of 15.77 s in the range from 1520 nm to 1620 nm. To accelerate the scanning speed of the optical spectrum analyzer (OSA), the wavelength resolution is reduced from 0.028 nm to 0.07 nm, 0.14 nm, and 0.28 nm, and consequently the scanning time is shortened to 6.31 s, 3.15 s, and 1.58 s, respectively. However, compared to 0.028 nm, the SRI sensitivity for 0.07 nm, 0.14 nm, and 0.28 nm is reduced to −5685 dB/RIU (17.5% less), −5415 dB/RIU (21.4% less), and −4359 dB/RIU (36.7% less), respectively. Thanks to the calculation of parabolic equation and weighted Gauss fitting based on the original data, the sensitivity is improved to −6332 dB/RIU and −6721 dB/RIU, respectively, for 0.07 nm, and the sensitivity is increased to −5850 dB/RIU and −6228 dB/RIU, respectively, for 0.14 nm.

Sensitive Near-Infrared Refractive Index Sensors Based on D-Shaped Photonic Crystal Fibers

We report a numerical study of D-shaped photonic crystal fiber based plasmonic refractive index sensor with high resolution and sensitivity in the near-infrared region. D-shaped photonic crystal fiber is formed by side polishing one part of photonic crystal fiber. It has a polishing surface where plasmonic gold layer is coated to modulate the resonant wavelength and enhance the refractive index sensitivity. Several D-shaped photonic crystal fiber plasmonic sensors with various distances from the photonic crystal fiber's core to the polishing surface and gold thicknesses are designed and their characteristics are analyzed by the finite element method. The simulation results indicate that distance from the photonic crystal fiber's core to the polishing surface causes modifications in the loss intensity, the resonant wavelength, and the refractive index sensitivity of D-shaped photonic crystal fiber plasmonic sensor. Mass production of refractive index sensors were achieved using a simple fabrication process, whereby the D-shaped photonic crystal fiber is grinded where distance from the photonic crystal fiber's core to the polishing surface is less than one layer thickness and then coated with the gold layer. For the refractive index sensing applications, the maxima theoretical resolution and sensitivity of D-shaped photonic crystal fiber plasmonic sensor reach 2.98 × 10 ⁶refractive index unit and 6,140 nm/refractive index unit in range of 1.30-1.37, respectively. We also report an initial fabrication of the D-shaped photonic crystal fiber following the standard stack-and- draw method to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed device by using our in-house equipments. The proposed D-shaped photonic crystal fiber plasmonic sensor design in this work would be useful for the development of cheap refractive index sensors with high sensitivity and resolution.

Effect of Spectral Signal-to-Noise Ratio on Resolution Enhancement at Surface Plasmon Resonance

Refractive index resolution is an important indicator for a wavelength interrogation surface plasmon resonance sensor, which can be affected by signal-to-noise ratio. This paper investigates the impact of spectral signal-to-noise ratio on a surface plasmon resonance sensor. The effects of different spectral powers and noises are compared and verified through simulation and experiments. The results indicate that the optimal resonance wavelength is changed and the refractive index resolution can even be nearly twice as good when the spectral signal-to-noise ratio is increased. The optimal resonance wavelength can be found by changing the spectral power distribution or noise.

High-resolution interrogation of tilted fiber Bragg gratings using an extended range dual wavelength differential detection

An extended range dual wavelength differential detection technique for interrogating fiber Bragg grating sensors is implemented for the measurement of tilted fiber Bragg gratings. The dynamic chirp of a single DFB laser diode modulated with a square wave is used to generate two pairs of wavelengths, in the high and low modulation states, with a separation approximately equal to the bandwidth of the TFBG, resulting in a doubling of the range of the DWDD measurement. A spectral resolution of 0.08 pm and a refractive index resolution of 9.9 × 10^-6 are obtained over a range of refractive index of 3.7 × 10^-2, corresponding to 11.9 bits of resolution.

Fiber optic refractive index sensors through spectral detection of Rayleigh backscattering in a chemically etched MgO-based nanoparticle-doped fiber

We demonstrate and experimentally validate a fiber optic refractive index (RI) sensor obtained by simply etching a high-scattering MgO-based nanoparticle-doped single-mode fiber in hydrofluoric acid (HF). The fiber has 32.3 dB stronger Rayleigh scattering than a standard fiber, allowing a detection of scattering spectral signatures with an optical backscatter reflectometer, even when the core is exposed to the outer RI. The obtained sensitivity is 1.53 nm/RIU (RI units), measured by correlating the scattering spectra. We prove the possibility of implementing a distributed RI detection (seven locations spaced by 1 mm). The fabrication method for this RI sensor is simplified, since it simply requires etching in an HF bath, without the need of inscribing reflective elements or fabricating microstructures in the fiber.

Evaluation of gold layer configuration for plasmonic fiber grating biosensors

Gold-coated fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) are nowadays a mature technology for lab-on-fiber sensing based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) excitation. Tilted FBGs bring valuable assets such as easy light injection, remote operation in very small volumes of analytes and immunity to temperature fluctuations. Different gold configurations have been reported to date, without considering their relative performances in terms of biochemical sensing. In this work, we experimentally study the impact of the gold coating on the cladding mode distribution in the tilted FBG amplitude spectrum and subsequently on its sensitivity to cytokeratins used as biomarkers for cancer diagnosis. Some relevant configurations of gold coatings are produced and tested, relying on both the sputtering and electroless plating (ELP) processes. The obtained results confirm that the coating thickness and its roughness drive the biosensing performances. The experimental limit of detection for cytokeratins 17 sensing reaches 14 fM for the most sensitive configurations.

Symmetrical dual D-shape photonic crystal fibers for surface plasmon resonance sensing

Symmetrical dual D-shape photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) for surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensing are designed and analyzed by the finite element method (FEM). The performance of the sensor is remarkably enhanced by the directional power coupling between the two fibers. We study the influence of the structural parameters on the performance of the sensor as well as the relationship between the resonance wavelengths and analyze refractive indexes between 1.36 and 1.41. An average spectral sensitivity of 14660 nm/RIU can be achieved in this sensing range and the corresponding refractive index resolution is 6.82 × 10^-6 RIU. The characteristics of a single D-shape PCF-SPR sensor with the same structural parameters are compared with those of the dual PCFs sensor and the latter has distinct advantages concerning the spectral sensitivity, resolution, amplitude sensitivity, and figure of merits (FOM).

Plasmonic Optical Fiber-Grating Immunosensing: A Review

Plasmonic immunosensors are usually made of a noble metal (in the form of a film or nanoparticles) on which bioreceptors are grafted to sense analytes based on the antibody/antigen or other affinity mechanism. Optical fiber configurations are a miniaturized counterpart to the bulky Kretschmann prism and allow easy light injection and remote operation. To excite a surface plasmon (SP), the core-guided light is locally outcoupled. Unclad optical fibers were the first configurations reported to this end. Among the different architectures able to bring light in contact with the surrounding medium, a great quantity of research is today being conducted on metal-coated fiber gratings photo-imprinted in the fiber core, as they provide modal features that enable SP generation at any wavelength, especially in the telecommunication window. They are perfectly suited for use with cost-effective high-resolution interrogators, allowing both a high sensitivity and a low limit of detection to be reached in immunosensing. This paper will review recent progress made in this field with different kinds of gratings: uniform, tilted and eccentric short-period gratings as well as long-period fiber gratings. Practical cases will be reported, showing that such sensors can be used in very small volumes of analytes and even possibly applied to in vivo diagnosis.

Review of the Functions of Archimedes' Spiral Metallic Nanostructures

Here, we have reviewed some typical plasmonic structures based on Archimedes' spiral (AS) architectures, which can produce polarization-sensitive focusing phenomenon and generate plasmonic vortices (PVs) carrying controllable orbital angular momentum (OAM) because of the relation between the incident polarized states and the chiralities of the spiral structures. These features can be used to analyze different circular polarization states, which has been one of the rapidly developing researching topics in nanophotonics in recent years. Many investigations demonstrate that the multifunctional spiral-based plasmonic structures are excellent choices for chiral selection and generating the transmitted field with well-defined OAM. The circular polarization extinction ratio, as an evaluation criterion for the polarization selectivity of a designed structure, could be effectively improved by properly modulating the parameters of spiral structures. Such functional spiral plasmonic nanostructures are promising for applications in analyzing circular polarization light, full Stokes vector polarimetric sensors, near-field imaging, and so on.

Compact eccentric long period grating with improved sensitivity in low refractive index region

We demonstrate a compact eccentric long period grating with enhanced sensitivity in low refractive index region. With a period designed at 15 µm for coupling light to high order cladding modes, the grating is more sensitive to surrounding refractive index in low refractive index region. The intrinsically low coupling coefficients for those high order cladding modes are significantly improved with the eccentric localized inscription induced by the femtosecond laser. The fabricated grating is compact with a length of 4.05 mm, and exhibits an average sensitivity of ~505 nm/RIU in low refractive index region (1.3328-1.3544). The proposed principle can also work in other refractive index region with a proper choice of the resonant cladding modes.

Immunosensing with Near-Infrared Plasmonic Optical Fiber Gratings

Surface Plasmon resonance (SPR) optical fiber biosensors constitute a miniaturized counterpart to the bulky prism configuration and offer remote operation in very small volumes of analyte. They are a cost-effective and relatively straightforward technique to yield in situ (or even possibly in vivo) molecular detection. They are usually obtained from a gold-coated fiber segment for which the core-guided light is brought into contact with the surrounding medium, either by etching (or side-polishing) or by using grating coupling. Recently, SPR generation was achieved in gold-coated tilted fiber Bragg gratings (TFBGs). These sensors probe the surrounding medium with near-infrared narrowband resonances, which enhances both the penetration depth of the evanescent field in the external medium and the wavelength resolution of the interrogation. They constitute the unique configuration able to probe all the fiber cladding modes individually, with high Q-factors. We use these unique spectral features in our work to sense proteins and extra-cellular membrane receptors that are both overexpressed in cancerous tissues. Impressive limit of detection (LOD) and sensitivity are reported, which paves the way for the further use of such immunosensors for cancer diagnosis.

Plasmonic Fiber Optic Refractometric Sensors: From Conventional Architectures to Recent Design Trends

Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) fiber sensor research has grown since the first demonstration over 20 year ago into a rich and diverse field with a wide range of optical fiber architectures, plasmonic coatings, and excitation and interrogation methods. Yet, the large diversity of SPR fiber sensor designs has made it difficult to understand the advantages of each approach. Here, we review SPR fiber sensor architectures, covering the latest developments from optical fiber geometries to plasmonic coatings. By developing a systematic approach to fiber-based SPR designs, we identify and discuss future research opportunities based on a performance comparison of the different approaches for sensing applications.

Higher Q factor and higher extinction ratio with lower detection limit photonic crystal-parallel-integrated sensor array for on-chip optical multiplexing sensing

We introduce an alternative method to establish a nanoscale sensor array based on a photonic crystal (PhC) slab, which is referred to as a 1×4 monolithic PhC parallel-integrated sensor array (PhC-PISA). To realize this function, four lattice-shifted resonant cavities are butt-coupled to four output waveguide branches, respectively. By shifting the first to the two closest neighboring holes around the defect, a high Q factor over 1.5×10⁴ has been obtained. Owing to the slightly different cavity spacing, each PhC resonator shows an independent resonant peak shift as the refractive index changes surrounding the resonant cavity. The specific single peak with a well-defined extinction ratio exceeds 25 dB. By applying the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method, we demonstrate that the sensitivities of each sensor in PhC-PISA S₁=60.500  nm/RIU, S₂=59.623  nm/RIU, S₃=62.500  nm/RIU, and S₄=51.142  nm/RIU (refractive index unit) are achieved, respectively. In addition, the negligible crosstalk and detection limit as small as 1×10^-4 have been observed. The proposed sensor array as a desirable platform has great potential to realize optical multiplexing sensing and high-density monolithic integration.

Ultrasensitive plasmonic sensing in air using optical fibre spectral combs

Surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) can be excited on metal-coated optical fibres, enabling the accurate monitoring of refractive index changes. Configurations reported so far mainly operate in liquids but not in air because of a mismatch between permittivities of guided light modes and the surrounding medium. Here we demonstrate a plasmonic optical fibre platform that overcomes this limitation. The underpinning of our work is a grating architecture-a gold-coated highly tilted Bragg grating-that excites a spectral comb of narrowband-cladding modes with effective indices near 1.0 and below. Using conventional spectral interrogation, we measure shifts of the SPP-matched resonances in response to static atmospheric pressure changes. A dynamic experiment conducted using a laser lined-up with an SPP-matched resonance demonstrates the ability to detect an acoustic wave with a resolution of 10^-8 refractive index unit (RIU). We believe that this configuration opens research directions for highly sensitive plasmonic sensing in gas.

High resolution fiber optic surface plasmon resonance sensors with single-sided gold coatings

The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) performance of gold coated tilted fiber Bragg gratings (TFBG) at near infrared wavelengths is evaluated as a function of the angle between the tilt plane orientation and the direction of single- and double-sided, nominally 50 nm-thick gold metal depositions. Scanning electron microscope images show that the coating are highly non-uniform around the fiber circumference, varying between near zero and 50 nm. In spite of these variations, the experimental results show that the spectral signature of the TFBG-SPR sensors is similar to that of simulations based on perfectly uniform coatings, provided that the depositions are suitably oriented along the tilt plane direction. Furthermore, it is shown that even a (properly oriented) single-sided coating (over only half of the fiber circumference) is sufficient to provide a theoretically perfect SPR response with a bandwidth under 5 nm, and 90% attenuation. Finally, using a pair of adjacent TFBG resonances within the SPR response envelope, a power detection scheme is used to demonstrate a limit of detection of 3 × 10^-6 refractive index units.

Multiplexed Simultaneous High Sensitivity Sensors with High-Order Mode Based on the Integration of Photonic Crystal 1 × 3 Beam Splitter and Three Different Single-Slot PCNCs

We simulated an efficient method for the sensor array of high-sensitivity single-slot photonic crystal nanobeam cavities (PCNCs) on a silicon platform. With the combination of a well-designed photonic crystal waveguide (PhCW) filter and an elaborate single-slot PCNC, a specific high-order resonant mode was filtered for sensing. A 1 × 3 beam splitter carefully established was implemented to split channels and integrate three sensors to realize microarrays. By applying the three-dimensional finite-difference-time-domain (3D-FDTD) method, the sensitivities calculated were S₁ = 492 nm/RIU, S₂ = 244 nm/RIU, and S₃ = 552 nm/RIU, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first multiplexing design in which each sensor cite features such a high sensitivity simultaneously.

Theoretical and experimental analysis of excessively tilted fiber gratings

We have theoretically and experimentally investigated the dual-peak feature of tilted fiber gratings with excessively tilted structure (named as Ex-TFGs). We have explained the dual-peak feature by solving eigenvalue equations for TM_0m and TE_0m of a circular waveguide, in which the TE (transverse electric) and TM (transverse magnetic) core modes are coupled into TE and TM cladding modes, respectively. Meanwhile, in the experiment, we have verified that one of the dual peaks at the shorter wavelength is due to the TM mode coupling whereas the other one at the longer wavelength arises from TE mode coupling when a linearly polarized light launched into the Ex-TFG. We have also investigated the peak separation of TE and TM cladding mode for different surrounding medium refractive indexes (SRI), revealed that the dual peaks separation is decreasing as increasing of SRI, which agrees very well with the theoretical analysis results.

Highly sensitive surface plasmon resonance sensor utilizing a long period grating with photosensitive cladding

In this study, we propose and investigate a novel grating-assisted surface plasmon resonance (SPR) platform based on a silver coated long period fiber grating having a photosensitive cladding (C-LPFG). We show that the SPR mode is transited from the higher EH mode with an effective refractive index (ERI) close to that of the surrounding refractive index (SRI) and is highly sensitive to a change in the SRI. Compared with a conventional SPR sensor, a much higher sensitivity is obtained for the novel C-LPFG-based SPR sensor. The sensitivity can be further improved by reducing the fiber diameter. The numerical results show that the highest local sensitivity, which can be as high as ∼4900  nm/RIU, and the corresponding resolution of ∼2.04×10(-6)  RIU are achieved for the reduced silver coated C-LPFG sensor. Moreover, the Q-factor and the figure of merit exhibit better characteristics than those of the conventional LPFG-based SPR sensor. Our findings provide insight into the C-LPFG-based SPR platform being a potentially important area to explore for biochemical sensing.

The effect of ALD-grown Al₂O₃ on the refractive index sensitivity of CVD gold-coated optical fiber sensors

The combined effect of nanoscale dielectric and metallic layers prepared by atomic layer deposition (ALD) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on the refractometric properties of tilted optical fiber Bragg gratings (TFBG) is studied. A high index intermediate layer made up of either 50 nm or 100 nm layers of Al2O3 (refractive index near 1.62) was deposited by ALD and followed by thin gold layers (30-65 nm) deposited from a known single-source gold (I) iminopyrrolidinate CVD precursor. The fabricated devices were immersed in different surrounding refractive indices (SRI) and the spectral transmission response of the TFBGs was measured. Preliminary results indicate that the addition of the dielectric Al2O3 pre-coating enhances the SRI sensitivity by up to 75% but this enhancement is highly dependent on the polarization and dielectric thickness. In fact, the sensitivity decreases by up to 50% for certain cases. These effects are discussed with support from TFBG simulations and models, by quantifying the penetration of the evanescently coupled light out of the fiber through the various coating layers. Additional characterization studies have been carried out on these samples to further correlate the optical behaviour of the coated TFBGs with the physical properties of the gold and Al2O3 layers, using atomic force microscopy x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and an ensemble of other optical and x-ray absorption spectroscopy techniques. The purity, roughness, and morphology of gold thin films deposited by CVD onto the dielectric-TFBG surface are also provided.

Plasmonic optical fiber sensors: enhanced sensitivity in water-based environments

In this work, we demonstrate a refractometric fiber sensor with improved sensitivity for refractive indices ranging from 1.3629 to 1.4479. The device relies on the coupling between a long period grating (LPG) transducer and a localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). Sensor operation is based on the transference of energy from LPG cladding modes at the visible spectral range to the LSPR. The transducer consists of a long period grating 3.15-mm-long covered with 2-7 nm gold nanoparticles. The sensor is intensity coded at a 568 nm wavelength, presenting sensitivity of 208%/unit of refractive index for a refractive index of 1.39 and resolution better than 0.0003 for the dynamic range of refractive indices from 1.3629 to 1.4479.

Graphene-coated tilted fiber-Bragg grating for enhanced sensing in low-refractive-index region

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a method to significantly extend the sensitive window of tilted fiber-Bragg grating (TFBG) into low-refractive-index region with the integration of graphene coating. The coupling between cladding modes of TFBG and graphene coating results in an obvious modification of the cladding-mode envelope, which provides a sensitive regime relying on graphene's complex refractive index. Interacting the graphene-coated TFBG with various aqueous solutions, we observe strongly enhanced sensitivity in the low-refractive-index region of 1-1.428, which is about 10-fold extended from that of the unloaded TFBG. The graphene-coated TFBGs present great potentials in the biochemical sensing window.

Review of plasmonic fiber optic biochemical sensors: improving the limit of detection

This paper presents a brief overview of the technologies used to implement surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effects into fiber-optic sensors for chemical and biochemical applications and a survey of results reported over the last ten years. The performance indicators that are relevant for such systems, such as refractometric sensitivity, operating wavelength, and figure of merit (FOM), are discussed and listed in table form. A list of experimental results with reported limits of detection (LOD) for proteins, toxins, viruses, DNA, bacteria, glucose, and various chemicals is also provided for the same time period. Configurations discussed include fiber-optic analogues of the Kretschmann-Raether prism SPR platforms, made from geometry-modified multimode and single-mode optical fibers (unclad, side-polished, tapered, and U-shaped), long period fiber gratings (LPFG), tilted fiber Bragg gratings (TFBG), and specialty fibers (plastic or polymer, microstructured, and photonic crystal fibers). Configurations involving the excitation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) on continuous thin metal layers as well as those involving localized SPR (LSPR) phenomena in nanoparticle metal coatings of gold, silver, and other metals at visible and near-infrared wavelengths are described and compared quantitatively.

Smart design of fiber optic surfaces for improved plasmonic biosensing

Although the phenomenon of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is known for more than a century now, traditional prism-based SPR platforms have hardly escaped the research laboratories despite being recognized for the sensitive and specific performance. Significant efforts have been made over the last years to overcome their existing limitations by coupling the SPR phenomenon to the fiber optic (FO) technology. While this platform has been promoted as cost-effective and simpler alternative capable of handling label-free bioassays, quantification and real-time monitoring of biomolecular interactions, examples of its applicability in sensing and biosensing remain to date very limited. The FO-SPR system is still in development and requires further advancements for reaching the stability and sensitivity of the benchmark SPR systems. Among existing strategies for device improvement, those based on modifying the FO tips using nanomaterials are mostly studied. These small-scale objects provide a wide range of possibilities for alternating the architecture of the FO sensitive zone, enabling also unique effects such as localized SPR (LSPR). This mini-review summarizes the latest innovations in the fabrication procedures which use nanoparticles or other nanomaterials, aiming at FO-SPR technology performance improvements, as well as addition of new device features and functionalities.

Near-infrared grating-assisted SPR optical fiber sensors: design rules for ultimate refractometric sensitivity

Plasmonic optical fiber sensors are continuously developed for (bio)chemical sensing purposes. Recently, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) generation was achieved in gold-coated tilted fiber Bragg gratings (TFBGs). These sensors probe the surrounding medium with near-infrared narrowband resonances, which enhances both the penetration depth of the evanescent field in the external medium and the wavelength resolution of the interrogation. They constitute a unique configuration to probe all the fiber cladding modes individually. We use them to analyze the modal distribution of gold-coated telecommunication-grade optical fibers immersed in aqueous solutions. Theoretical investigations with a finite-difference complex mode solver are confirmed by experimental data obtained on TFBGs. We show that the refractometric sensitivity varies with the mode order and that the global SPR envelope shift in response to surrounding refractive index (SRI) changes higher than 1e-2 RIU (refractive index unit) can be ~25% bigger than the local SPR mode shift arising from SRI changes limited to 1e-4 RIU. We bring clear evidence that the optimum gold thickness for SPR generation lies in the range between 50 and 70 nm while a cladding diameter decrease from 125 µm to 80 µm enhances the refractometric sensitivity by ~20%. Finally, we demonstrate that the ultimate refractometric sensitivity of cladding modes is ~550 nm/RIU when they are probed by gold-coated TFBGs.

High-Q and high-sensitivity width-modulated photonic crystal single nanobeam air-mode cavity for refractive index sensing

We propose a novel optical sensor based on a one-dimensional (1D) photonic crystal (PhC) single nanobeam air-mode cavity (SNAC). The performance of the device is investigated theoretically. By introducing a quadratically modulated width tapering structure, a waveguide-coupled 1D-PhC SNAC with a calculated high quality factor of 5.16×10(6) and an effective mode volume of V(eff)∼2.18(λ/n(si))(3) can be achieved. For the air mode mentioned above, the light field can be strongly localized inside the air region (low index) and overlaps sufficiently with the analytes. Thus, the suggested PhC SNAC can be used for high-sensitivity refractive index sensing with an estimated high sensitivity of 537.8 nm/RIU. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first PhC single nanobeam geometry that features both high Q-factors and high sensitivity, and is potentially an ideal platform for realizing ultracompact lab-on-a-chip applications with dense arrays of functionalized spots for multiplexed sensing.

Surface plasmon resonance in eccentric femtosecond-laser-induced fiber Bragg gratings

Highly localized refractive index modulations are photo-written in the core of pure silica fiber using point-by-point focused UV femtosecond pulses. These specific gratings exhibit a comb-like transmitted amplitude spectrum, with polarization-dependent narrowband cladding mode resonances. In this work, eccentric gratings are surrounded by a gold sheath, allowing the excitation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) for radially-polarized light modes. The spectral response is studied as a function of the surrounding refractive index and a maximum sensitivity of 50  nm/RIU (refractive index unit) is reported for a well-defined cladding-mode resonance among the spectral comb. This novel kind of plasmonic fiber grating sensor offers rapidity of production, design flexibility, and high temperature stability.

Surface plasmon resonance fiber sensor for real-time and label-free monitoring of cellular behavior

This paper reports on the application of an optical fiber biosensor for real-time analysis of cellular behavior. Our findings illustrate that a fiber sensor fabricated from a traditional telecommunication fiber can be integrated into conventional cell culture equipment and used for real-time and label-free monitoring of cellular responses to chemical stimuli. The sensing mechanism used for the measurement of cellular responses is based on the excitation of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) on the surface of the optical fiber. In this proof of concept study, the sensor was utilized to investigate the influence of a number of different stimuli on cells-we tested the effects of trypsin, serum and sodium azide. These stimuli induced detachment of cells from the sensor surface, uptake of serum and inhibition of cellular metabolism, accordingly. The effects of different stimuli were confirmed with alamar blue assay, phase contrast and fluorescence microscopy. The results indicated that the fiber biosensor can be successfully utilized for real-time and label-free monitoring of cellular response in the first 30 min following the introduction of a stimulus. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the optical fiber biosensors can be easily regenerated for repeated use, proving this platform as a versatile and cost-effective sensing tool.

SPR phase detection for measuring the thickness of thin metal films

In this paper, a novel method to determine the thickness of thin metal film is put forward which uses Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) phase detection method. The relations between the metal film thickness and the phases of the transverse magnetic (TM) and transverse electric (TE) polarization of the reflected light are shown in the simulation results. By recording the interference patterns which contain the information of the phase differences in the experiments, the values of thickness are calculated. Both of the theoretical analysis and experimental results indicate that the approach presented is feasible and reliable. Thus, it is possible to use the method of phase detection to determine the thickness of thin metal films within 100nm in SPR prism couplers directly with nanometer resolution.

Polarization-resolved evanescent wave scattering from gold-coated tilted fiber gratings

The scatterings of TE- and TM-polarized evanescent wave on the surface of a tilted fiber Bragg grating (TFBG) with a 50 nm thick gold coating were investigated experimentally by observing radiation patterns from discontinuities in the coating. The scattering intensity for TM-polarized light is larger than for TE light when the evanescent wave propagates from the coating towards the discontinuity. The opposite occurs for light propagating from an uncoated section towards the coating edge. However in the latter case the scattering is much weaker. These results confirm that cladding modes with TE and TM polarization can be excited selectively with a TFBG, and that they scatter light differentially at discontinuities. These results are used to propose a simple polarimeter design based on total scattered light intensity monitoring.

High-refractive-index transparent coatings enhance the optical fiber cladding modes refractometric sensitivity

The high order cladding modes of standard single mode optical fiber appear in quasi-degenerate pairs corresponding to mostly radially or mostly azimuthally polarized light. In this work, we demonstrate that, in the presence of a high-refractive-index coating surrounding the fiber outer surface, the wavelength spacing between the orthogonally polarized cladding modes families can be drastically enhanced. This behavior can be advantageously exploited for refractometric sensing purposes. For this, we make use of tilted fiber Bragg gratings (TFBGs) as spectral combs to excite the orthogonally polarized cladding modes families separately. TFBGs were coated with a nanometer-scale transparent thin film characterized by a refractive index value close to 1.9, well higher than the one of pure silica. This coating brings two important assets: an ~8-fold increase in refractometric sensitivity is obtained in comparison to bare TFBGs while the sensitivity is extended to surrounding refractive index (SRI) values above 1.45.

Surface plasmon resonance sensor interrogation with a double-clad fiber coupler and cladding modes excited by a tilted fiber Bragg grating

We present a novel optical fiber surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor scheme using reflected guided cladding modes captured by a double-clad fiber coupler and excited in a gold-coated fiber with a tilted Bragg grating. This new interrogation approach, based on the reflection spectrum, provides an improvement in the operating range of the device over previous techniques. The device allows detection of SPR in the reflected guided cladding modes and also in the transmitted spectrum, allowing comparison with standard techniques. The sensor has a large operating range from 1.335 to 1.432 RIU, and a sensitivity of 510.5 nm/RIU. The device shows strong dependence on the polarization state of the guided core mode which can be used to turn the SPR on or off.

In fiber Bragg grating twist sensor based on analysis of polarization dependent loss

In this paper, a new technique exploiting the polarization properties of normal fiber Bragg grating (FBG) for twist sensing is firstly proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The evolution of the polarization dependent loss (PDL) response of the FBG with respect to the twist is studied. The physical model is presented and a numerical simulation based on the transfer matrix method is used to calculate the PDL spectrum of the twisted FBG. The theoretical and experimental results suggest that the PDL response of the FBG have higher twist sensitivities than that of the reflected or transmitted amplitude spectra. Based on comprehensive analysis of the resonant wavelength and the amplitude of the two main lobes of the PDL spectrum, this sensor can measure twist angle and determine twist direction simultaneously. Moreover, the performance of the sensor is not affected by strain and temperature variations.

Polarized spectral combs probe optical fiber surface plasmons

The high-order cladding modes of conventional single mode fiber come in semi-degenerate pairs corresponding to mostly radially or mostly azimuthally polarized light. Using tilted fiber Bragg gratings to excite these mode families separately, we show how plasmonic coupling to a thin gold coating on the surface of the fiber modifies the effective indices of the modes differently according to polarization and to mode order. In particular, we show the existence of a single "apolarized" grating resonance, with equal effective index for all input polarization states. This special resonance provides direct evidence of the excitation of a surface plasmon on the metal surface but also an absolute wavelength reference that allows for the precise localization of the most sensitive resonances in refractometric and biochemical sensing applications. Two plasmon interrogation methods are proposed, based on wavelength and amplitude measurements. Finally, we use a biotin-streptavidin biomolecular recognition experiment to demonstrate that differential spectral transmission measurements of a fine comb of cladding mode resonances in the vicinity of the apolarized resonance provide the most accurate method to extract information from plasmon-assisted Tilted fiber Bragg gratings, down to pM concentrations and at least 10(-5) refractive index changes.

Polarization-dependent properties of the cladding modes of a single mode fiber covered with gold nanoparticles

The properties of the high order cladding modes of standard optical fibers are measured in real-time during the deposition of gold nanoparticle layers by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Using a tilted fiber Bragg grating (TFBG), the resonance wavelength and peak-to-peak amplitude of a radially polarized cladding mode resonance located 51 nm away from the core mode reflection resonance shift by 0.17 nm and 13.54 dB respectively during the formation of a ~200 nm thick layer. For the spectrally adjacent azimuthally polarized resonance, the corresponding shifts are 0.45 nm and 16.34 dB. In both cases, the amplitudes of the resonance go through a pronounced minimum of about 5 dB for thickness between 80 and 100 nm and at the same time the wavelengths shift discontinuously. These effects are discussed in terms of the evolving metallic boundary conditions perceived by the cladding modes as the nanoparticles grow. Scanning Electron Micrographs and observations of cladding mode light scattering by nanoparticle layers of various thicknesses reveal a strong correlation between the TFBG polarized transmission spectra, the grain size and fill factor of the nanoparticles, and the scattering efficiency. This allows the preparation of gold nanoparticle layers that strongly discriminate between radially and azimuthally polarized cladding mode evanescent fields, with important consequences in the plasmonic properties of these layers.

Fabry-Pérot-based surface plasmon resonance sensors

A new sensing approach based on the use of an optical Fabry-Pérot (FP) cavity in conjunction with surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is proposed and theoretically investigated. The impact of the SPR on the intensity and phase response of the proposed sensor structure is evaluated using a modified FP model that takes into account the SPR effect. Compared to the conventional optical-phase-detection-based Kretschmann configuration, the proposed sensing approach requires only the measurement of the output power spectrum over a narrow wavelength span of several nanometers to evaluate the phase responses of the sensor, making it more attractive for practical high-sensitivity sensing applications.

Plasmon-enhanced refractometry using silver nanowire coatings on tilted fibre Bragg gratings

A novel technique for increasing the sensitivity of tilted fibre Bragg grating (TFBG) based refractometers is presented. The TFBG sensor was coated with chemically synthesized silver nanowires ~100 nm in diameter and several micrometres in length. A 3.5-fold increase in sensor sensitivity was obtained relative to the uncoated TFBG sensor. This increase is associated with the excitation of surface plasmons by orthogonally polarized fibre cladding modes at wavelengths near 1.5 μm. Refractometric information is extracted from the sensor via the strong polarization dependence of the grating resonances using a Jones matrix analysis of the transmission spectrum of the fibre.

Self-optimized metal coatings for fiber plasmonics by electroless deposition

We present a novel method to prepare optimized metal coatings for infrared Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) sensors by electroless plating. We show that Tilted Fiber Bragg grating sensors can be used to monitor in real-time the growth of gold nano-films up to 70 nm in thickness and to stop the deposition of the gold at a thickness that maximizes the SPR (near 55 nm for sensors operating in the near infrared at wavelengths around 1550 nm). The deposited films are highly uniform around the fiber circumference and in spite of some nanoscale roughness (RMS surface roughness of 5.17 nm) the underlying gratings show high quality SPR responses in water.

In situ biosensing with a surface plasmon resonance fiber grating aptasensor

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensors prepared using optical fibers can be used as a cost-effective and relatively simple-to-implement alternative to well established biosensor platforms for monitoring biomolecular interactions in situ or possibly in vivo. The fiber biosensor presented in this study utilizes an in-fiber tilted Bragg grating to excite the SPR on the surface of the sensor over a large range of external medium refractive indices, with minimal cross-sensitivity to temperature and without compromising the structural integrity of the fiber. The label-free biorecognition scheme used demonstrates that the sensor relies on the functionalization of the gold-coated fiber with aptamers, synthetic DNA sequences that bind with high specificity to a given target. In addition to monitoring the functionalization of the fiber by the aptamers in real-time, the results also show how the fiber biosensor can detect the presence of the aptamer's target, in various concentrations of thrombin in buffer and serum solutions. The findings also show how the SPR biosensor can be used to evaluate the dissociation constant (K(d)), as the binding constant agrees with values already reported in the literature.

Interrogation technique for TFBG-SPR refractometers based on differential orthogonal light states

The generation of near-IR surface plasmon resonance in gold-coated tilted fiber Bragg gratings is strongly dependent on both the polarization state of the transmission light and the property of confining materials (including the coating materials and surrounding media). These dependencies can be advantageously used to demodulate the amplitude spectrum and retrieve the surrounding refractive index. In this paper, we present an automated demodulation technique that measures the surrounding refractive index by comparing the differential amplitude of resonance peaks near the plasmon attenuation for two orthogonal amplitude spectra recorded in the same operating conditions. A mean sensitivity of more than 500 nm per refractive index unit is reported. This new refractive index measurement method is shown to be accurate to 5×10(-5) over a full range of 0.01 in water solutions.