The Role of Tapered Light-Diffusing Fibers in Plasmonic Sensor Configurations

In this work, we experimentally analyzed the effect of tapering in light-diffusing optical fibers (LDFs) when employed as surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-based sensors. Although tapering is commonly adopted to enhance the performance of plasmonic optical fiber sensors, we have demonstrated that in t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2021-09, Vol.21 (19), p.6333
Main Authors: Cennamo, Nunzio, Arcadio, Francesco, Zeni, Luigi, Catalano, Ester, Del Prete, Domenico, Buonanno, Gionatan, Minardo, Aldo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Communication
Gold
light-diffusing fibers
modal filter
optical fiber sensors
Optical fibers
Optics
Plasmonics
Sensitivity
Sensors
surface plasmon resonance (SPR)
tapered light-diffusing fibers
Tapering
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Summary:In this work, we experimentally analyzed the effect of tapering in light-diffusing optical fibers (LDFs) when employed as surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-based sensors. Although tapering is commonly adopted to enhance the performance of plasmonic optical fiber sensors, we have demonstrated that in the case of plasmonic sensors based on LDFs, the tapering produces a significant worsening of the bulk sensitivity (roughly 60% in the worst case), against a slight decrease in the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the SPR spectra. Furthermore, we have demonstrated that these aspects become more pronounced when the taper ratio increases. Secondly, we have established that a possible alternative exists in using the tapered LDF as a modal filter after the sensible region. In such a case, we have determined that a good trade-off between the loss in sensitivity and the FWHM decrease could be reached.
ISSN:1424-8220
1424-8220
DOI:10.3390/s21196333