In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a novel self-referencing surface plasmon resonance (SPR) fiber-optic sensor which provides a Fabry-Perot (FP) interference referencing signal for temperature compensating. The sensor is fabricated by splicing a capillary partly coated with gold film between multimode fibers. The multimode fibers act as the lead-in and lead-out fibers while the capillary is used as sensing element. Because the FP interference and SPR effects can occur in the capillary simultaneously, the spectrum of the sensor exhibits SPR absorption and FP interference fringes. Due to the FP interference fringe sensitive to temperature while insensitive to refractive index (RI), it can be used as referencing signal and the SPR absorption was used as measuring signal. Experimental results show that this approach we presented can compensate temperature effect and develop this sensor as a practicable high-sensitivity sensing device. Moreover, as a self-referencing fiber-optic SPR sensor, this simple and low-cost element can be used for highly sensitive biosensing for further investigations.
We present a localized surface plasmon resonance fiber optic biosensor based on an intensity interrogation mechanism. A layer of gold nano sphere is deposited on a fiber optic sensor probe which works as the sensing element and is immobilized on the sidewall of an unclad optical fiber via two different immobilization methods (amino silane method and layer by layer self-assembly method). Different self-assembly layers were also respectively investigated by using layer by layer self-assembly method to explore the optimum layer number. Experimental results reveal that PDDA/PSS/PAH layer self-assembly method provides the best LSPR response. We obtain a refractive index sensitivity as 6.57RIU-1 in a RI range of 1.3266~1.3730. We also conduct real-time and label free monitoring of Ribonuclease B/Con A biomolecular interaction by using this sensor prototype and demonstrate it can perform qualitative and quantitative detection in real-time biomolecular sensing.
A novel evanescent field refractometer based on a two-core photonic crystal fiber (TWPCF) sandwiched between multimode fibers(MMFs) is demonstrated. Through splicing a short piece of TWPCF between two MMFs, a simple structure and high sensitivity RI sensor can be constructed. Instead of using wavelength information as sensor signal, we focus more on the light intensity signal different from most PCF based RI sensor. The TWPCF section functions as a tailorable bridge between the excited high order modes and the surrounding refractive index (SRI). With a light filter inserting in the front of white light, the transmission spectrum of the light through the sensing region occurs in a welldefined wavelength bands. As a result, the peak power of the transmission light is tailored with the SRI perturbation via the MMF-TWPCF–MMF structure. The experiment result shows a quadratic relation between the light intensity and samples within RI range of 1.33-1.41 while a linear response can be achieved from the 1.33-1.35 which is a most used RI range for biologically sensing.
We present a wavelength-tunable tapered optics fiber surface Plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor by polishing the end faces of multimode fibers(MMF).Two hard plastic clad optical fibers joint closely and are used as the light input and output channels. Their end faces are polished to produce two oblique planes, which are coated with gold film to be the sensing surface and the front mirror. The presence of the tapered geometry formed by the two oblique planes in the orthogonal directions makes it possible to adjust incident angle through changing the tilt angles of the two end faces, so as to achieve tuning the SPR coupling wavelength-angle pair. Compared with previous researches based a tapered optic fiber probe, we report the approach theoretically increase the signal noise ratio (SNR) by separating incident and emergent light propagating in the different coordinate fiber. Since fabricating the sensing surface and the front mirror on the two fibers to replace one single fiber tip, there is more incident light can reach the sensing surface and satisfy SPR effective. In addition, this improvement in structure has advantages of large grinding and sensing area, which can lead to high sensitivity and simple manufacture process of the sensor. Experimental measurement demonstrates the sensor has a favorable SPR resonanceabsorption and the ability of measuring refractive index (RI) of aqueous solution. This novel tapered SPR sensor has the potential to be applied to the biological sensing field.