Modeling of Gold Circular Sub-Wavelength Apertures on a Fiber Endface for Refractive Index Sensing

Abstract

A finite-difference time-domain approach was used to investigate the excitation of surface plasmons of the circular sub-wavelength apertures on an optical fiber endface. This phenomenon provided the basis of a sensitive liquid refractive index sensor. The proposed sensor is compact and has the potential to be used in biomedical applications, having a sensitivity of (373 ± 16) nm per refractive index unit (RIU) as found through the variation of a reflection minimum with the wavelength.

Keywords

Optical fiber / surface plasmon resonance / periodic array / refractive index sensing / finite-difference time-domain

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