Improvement of the sensitivity of the surface plasmon resonance sensors based on multi-layer modulation techniques

In this study, a multi-layer modulation technique was used in an SPR optical fiber sensor to enhance the sensitivity of the SPR optical fiber sensor by adjusting the SPR resonant wavelength. The sputtering process deposited 20 nm of TiO2, 11 nm of SiO2 and 30 nm of gold film on the material surface to change the refractive index. Regardless of the different refractive index solutions (1.32 and 1.36), the sensitivities in wavelength interrogation of the SPR optical fiber with the single gold thin film and multi-layers modulation were 1.08×10−5 RIUs and 1.74×10−6 RIUs, respectively. The results showed the significant differences between the different refractive index solutions of 1.32 and 1.36 using the 850 nm light source to analyze the SPR optical fiber sensor in real-time. The sensitivities in intensity interrogation of the SPR optical fiber with the single gold thin film and multi-layers modulation were 1.08×10−3 RIUs and 1.73×10−4 RIUs, respectively, which indicated that the multi-layer modulation techniques could enhance the sensitivity of the SPR optical fiber sensor. The compact size of the multi-layer SPR fiber sensor had a wider detecting range of the refractive index and higher sensitivity, which had the potential for other applications in biological analysis with suitable wavelength.