Sensors based on SPR in plastic optical fiber: Numerical analysis and experimental results

The paper reports the numerical analysis and some experimental results relative to an optical sensor system based on Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) at the interface of a liquid sample and a sandwiched structures realized starting from the exposed core of a Plastic Optical Fiber (POF). The advantages of POF sensors is that they are simpler to manufacture than those based on silica optical fibers. In the scientific literature there are only simple POF sensors based on laterally polished bent structures prepared along a plastic optical fiber [1]. In this paper different POF sensor configurations are simulated and experimentally tested. The classical geometry of sensors based on SPR in silica optical fiber is adapted and borrowed for Plastic Optical Fibers [2], so representing a simple approach to low cost plasmonic sensing. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media.