Effect of fiber core dopant concentration on the performance of surface plasmon resonance-based fiber optic sensor

In the present work we study the influence of varying concentrations of different fiber core dopants on the sensor performance in terms of sensitivity, signal to noise ratio (SNR) and operating range of surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-based fiber optic sensors. We consider the use of different concentrations of GeO2, B2O3 and mixture of both in the core of plastic cladded silica (PCS) optical fiber. The study is further extended to consider the performance of quenched fiber. We show how sensitivity and signal to noise ratio of surface-plasmon-based fiber optic sensors can be optimized by wisely choosing their fiber core doping.