An Optical Fiber Refractive Index Sensor Based on the Hybrid Mode of Tamm and Surface Plasmon Polaritons

Abstract

A novel high performance optical fiber refractive index (RI) sensor based on the hybrid transverse magnetic (TM) mode of Tamm plasmon polariton (TPP) and surface plasmon polariton (SPP) is proposed. The structure of the sensor is a multi-mode optical fiber with a one dimensional photonic crystal (1 DPC)/metal multi-films outer coated on its fiber core. A simulation study of the proposed sensor is carried out with the geometrical optical model to investigate the performance of the designed sensor with respect to the center wavelength, bilayer period and the thickness of silver layer. Because the lights transmitted in the fiber sensor have much larger incident angles than those in the prism based sensors, the center wavelength of the 1 DPC should shift to longer wavelength. When the coupling between TM-TPP and SPP is stronger, the sensor exhibits better performance because the electromagnetic field of the TPP-SPP hybrid mode is enhanced more in the analyte. Compared to most conventional fiber surface plasmon resonance sensors, the figure of merit of the proposed sensor is much higher while the sensitivity is comparable. The idea of utilizing TPP-SPP hybrid mode for RI sensing in the solid-core optical fiber structure presented in this paper could contribute to the study of the fiber RI sensor based on TPP.

Hybrid Tamm-cavity modes in photonic crystal with resonant nanocomposite defect layer

“…have been developed [5 -11]. The interest in these interactions is due to the potential of their application in sensors [12,13], light-emitting devices [14,15], photodiodes [16], and organic solar cells [17]. The variant of hybridization of the TP and cavity modes (CMs) is the most widespread.…”

Tamm-surface plasmon resonances from nanograting-coupled plasmonic-photonic multilayer structure for an integrated fiber-optic sensing application

“…The sensing applications mentioned above cannot be achieved using traditional fiber-optic SPR sensors. To clearly demonstrate the uniqueness and sensing performance of this sensor, table 1 summarizes the characteristics of previously reported sensors with TP mode [13,17,18,[28][29][30] and the proposed sensor, including their resonant structure, resonant mode, sensitivity, FOM, and advantages. In comparison to previously reported sensors with TP mode, the proposed SP-TP dual resonant sensor not only exhibits comparable sensing performance but also offers the potential for optical fiber end facet integration, which has rarely been reported thus far.…”

“…Different from standard surface plasmons (SPs), it can be directly excited at normal incidence at the interface between a metal film and a one-dimensional planar photonic crystal (PC), which offers tremendous convenience for the integration of optical devices. Contemporarily, some researchers have conducted extensive research on sensors with the simultaneous excitation of TP and SP modes to improve linewidth and sensitivity of SP resonance [17,18]. However, most of the proposed technologies still need to be implemented on prism structure and have a relatively strict requirement on the incident angle [19,20], which is not conducive to the miniaturization and integration of optoelectronic devices.…”

High sensitivity sensing by all-dielectric metasurface via dual bound states in the continuum

“…In the refractive index sensor, figure of merit (FOM) and refractive index sensitivity (S) are the key parameters to measure the performance of senor. Where, refractive index sensitivity (S) is defined as S=∂λ/∂n (nm/RIU), where ∂λ and ∂n are wavelength shift and refractive index difference 28,29 , respectively. FOM is defined as S/∆λ, that is, the ratio of sensitivity (S) to resonance linewidth (∆λ).…”