Designing and adjusting the thickness of polyvinylpyrrolidone waveguide layer on plasmonic nanofilm for humidity sensing

Zhiqing Feng; Lan Bai; Lijiao Guo; Baosheng Cao; Jinlei Wu; Yangyang He

doi:10.1117/1.OE.56.1.016116

31 January 2017 Designing and adjusting the thickness of polyvinylpyrrolidone waveguide layer on plasmonic nanofilm for humidity sensing

Zhiqing Feng, Lan Bai, Lijiao Guo, Baosheng Cao, Jinlei Wu, Yangyang He

Author Affiliations +

Optical Engineering, Vol. 56, Issue 1, 016116 (January 2017). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.OE.56.1.016116

Abstract

We developed a fast response and high-resolution plasmonic waveguide sensor for sensing environmental humidity by converting the optical signal in the visible light region. The sensor was designed as a layer-on-layer film structure in which the hydrophilic polymer of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) film served as the waveguide layer and was dip-coated onto the plasmonic gold (Au) nanofilm for sensing the environmental humidity. The amount of the absorbed water molecules on the PVP layer could affect the refractive index and thickness of the PVP, leading to a shift of the surface plasmon resonance peak position of Au nanofilm at the different order modes of the waveguide. The theoretic calculations indicated that the optimal thickness of the waveguide layer on the Au nanofilm ranged from 550 to 650 nm. By adjusting the thickness of the PVP layer to 560 nm, the high-resolution optical signals were observed in the visible light region with the humidity shifts ranging from 11% to 85% relative humidity (RH). Our work details a successful attempt to design and prepare the plasmonic waveguide sensor with the lost-cost polymer as the sensing layer for real-time detection of environmental humidity.

Citation Download Citation

Zhiqing Feng, Lan Bai, Lijiao Guo, Baosheng Cao, Jinlei Wu, and Yangyang He "Designing and adjusting the thickness of polyvinylpyrrolidone waveguide layer on plasmonic nanofilm for humidity sensing," Optical Engineering 56(1), 016116 (31 January 2017). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.OE.56.1.016116

Received: 4 November 2016; Accepted: 5 January 2017; Published: 31 January 2017

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available