Reconfigurable exceptional point-based sensing with 0.001λsensitivity using spoof localized surface plasmons

Recent breakthroughs in the field of non-Hermitian physics present unprecedented opportunities,from fundamental theories to cutting-edge applications such as multimode lasers,unconventional wave transport,and high-performance sensors.The exceptional point,a spectral singularity widely existing in non-Hermitian systems,provides an indispensable route to enhance the sensitivity of optical detection.However,the exceptional point of the forementioned systems is set once the system is built or fabricated,and machining errors make it hard to reach such a state precisely.To this end,we develop a highly tunable and reconfigurable exceptional point system,i.e.,a single spoof plasmonic resonator suspended above a substrate and coupled with two freestanding Rayleigh scatterers.Our design offers great flexibility to control exceptional point states,enabling us to dynamically reconfigure the exceptional point formed by various multipolar modes across a broadband frequency range.Specifically,we experimentally implement five distinct exceptional points by precisely manipulating the positions of two movable Rayleigh scatterers.In addition,the enhanced perturbation strength offers remarkable sensitivity enhancement for detecting deep-subwavelength particles with the minimum dimension down to 0.001λ(withλto be the free-space wavelength).

Sensitivity Dependence of Surface Plasmon Resonance Based Sensors on Prism Refractive Index

We theoretically and experimentally demonstrate that refractive index of the prism used to load metal film has significant influence on sensitivity of surface plasmon resonance based sensors. The prism with lower refractive index gives the sensors a higher sensitivity in detecting refractive index variations of a sample. We attribute this effect to the fact that a prism with low refractive index will increase coupling distance between surface plasmons and the medium under investigation.

Polydopamine-Assisted Fabrication of Fiber-Optic Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensor Based on Gold Nanoparticles

A fast and facile method of fabricating fiber-optic localized surface plasmon resonance sensors baseff on spherical gold nanoparticles was introduced in this study. The gold nanoparticles with an average diameter of 55 nm were synthesized via the Turkevich method and were then immobilized onto the surface of an uncladded sensor probe using a polydopamine layer. To obtain a sensor probe with high sensitivity to changes in the refractive index, a set of key optimization parameters, including the sensing length, coating time of the potydopamine layer, and coating time of the gold nanoparticles, were investigated. The sensitivity of the optimized sensor probe was 522.80 nm per refractive index unit, and the probe showed distinctive wavelength shifts when the refractive index was changed from 1.328 6 to 1.398 7. When stored in deionized water at 4 ℃, the sensor probe proved to be stable over a period of two weeks. The sensor also exhibited advantages, such as low cost, fast fabrication, and simple optical setup, which indicated its potential application in remote sensing and real-time detection.

Fiber cladding dual channel surface plasmon resonance sensor based on S-type fiber

Fiber cladding surface plasmon resonance(SPR)sensors have few structures,and a clad SPR sensor based on S-type fiber is proposed in this paper.This new type of fiber cladding SPR sensor was formed by electrofusing an S-shaped structure on the fiber to couple the light in the fiber core to the cladding.In this paper,the effects of fiber parameters on the performance of the sensor were studied by simulation and experiment.Based on the conclusion that the smaller the core diameter is,the closer the working band of the SPR resonance is to long wavelengths,and that the geometric characteristics mean that a multimode fiber can receive the fiber cladding light from a small core diameter few-mode fiber,a dual channel SPR sensor with a double S-type fiber cascade was proposed.In the refractive index detection range of 1.333–1.385refractive index units(RIU),the resonant working band of channel I is 627.66 nm–759.78 nm,with an average sensitivity of 2540.77 nm/RIU,and the resonant working band of channel II is 518.24 nm–658.2 nm,with an average sensitivity of2691.54 nm/RIU.The processing method for the S-type fiber cladding SPR sensor is simple,effectively solving the problem of this type of SPR sensor structure and the difficult realization of a dual channel.The sensor is expected to be used in the fields of medical treatment and biological analysis.

Dual-channel fiber-optic surface plasmon resonance sensor with cascaded coaxial dual-waveguide D-type structure and microsphere structure

To address the restriction of fiber-optic surface plasmon resonance(SPR) sensors in the field of multi-sample detection, a novel dual-channel fiber-optic SPR sensor based on the cascade of coaxial dual-waveguide D-type structure and microsphere structure is proposed in this paper. The fiber sidepolishing technique converts the coaxial dual-waveguide fiber into a D-type one, and the evanescent wave in the ring core leaks, generating a D-type sensing region;the fiber optic fused ball push technology converts the coaxial dual waveguides into microspheres, and the stimulated cladding mode evanescent wave leaks, producing the microsphere sensing region. By injecting light into the coaxial dual-waveguide middle core alone, the sensor can realize single-stage sensing in the microsphere sensing area;it can also realize dual-channel sensing in the D-type sensing area and microsphere sensing area by injecting light into the ring core. The refractive index measurement ranges for the two channels are 1.333–1.365 and 1.375–1.405, respectively, with detection sensitivities of 981.56 nm/RIU and 4138 nm/RIU. The sensor combines wavelength division multiplexing and space division multiplexing technologies, presenting a novel research concept for multi-channel fiber SPR sensors.

Refractive index sensor based on high-order surface plasmon resonance in gold nanofilm coated photonic crystal fiber

We propose a novel kind of wide-range refractive index optical sensor based on photonic crystal fiber(PCF) covered with nano-ring gold film.The refractive index sensing performance of the PCF sensor is analyzed and simulated by the finite element method(FEM).The refractive index liquid is infiltrated into the cladding air hole of the PCF.By comparing the sensing performance of two kinds of photonic crystal fiber structures, a wide range and high sensitivity structure is optimized.The surface plasmon resonance(SPR) excitation material is chose as gold, and large gold nanorings are embedded around the first cladding air hole of the PCF.The higher order surface plasmon modes are generated in this designed optical fiber structure.The resonance coupling between the fundamental mode and the 5 th order surface plasmon polariton(SPP)modes is excited when the phase matching condition is matched.Therefore, the 3 rd loss peaks appear obvious red-shift with the increase of the analyte refractive index, which shows a remarkable polynomial fitting law.The fitnesses of two structures are 0.99 and 0.98, respectively.When the range of refractive indices is from 1.40 to 1.43, the two kinds of sensors have high linear sensitivities of 1604 nm/RIU and 3978 nm/RIU, respectively.

Performance analysis of surface plasmon resonance sensor with high-order absentee layer

A surface plasmon resonance （SPR） sensor with a high-order absentee layer on the top of metallic film is proposed. The performance of the SPR sensor with NaCl, MgO, TiO2 or AlAs high-order absentee layer is analyzed theoretically. The results indicate that the sensitivity and the full width at half maximum of those SPR sensors decrease with the increasing of the order of absentee layer, but the variation of the figure of merit （FOM） depends on the refractive index of absentee layer. By improving the order of absentee layer with high-refractive-index, the FOM of the SPR sensor can be enhanced. The maximum value of FOM for the SPR sensor with high-order TiO2 （or AlAs） absentee layer is 1.059% （or 2.587%） higher than the one with one-order absentee layer. It is believed the proposed SPR sensor with high-order absentee layer will be helpful for developing the high-performance SPR sensors.

Sensitivity improvement of aluminum-based far-ultraviolet nearly guided-wave surface plasmon resonance sensor

An aluminum(Al)based nearly guided-wave surface plasmon resonance(NGWSPR)sensor is investigated in the far-ultraviolet(FUV)region.By simultaneously optimizing the thickness of Al and dielectric films,the sensitivity of the optimized Al-based FUV-NGWSPR sensor increases from 183/RIU to 309/RIU,and its figure of merit rises from 26.47 RIU^(-1)to 32.59 RIU^(-1)when the refractive index of dielectric increases from 2 to 5.Compared with a traditional FUV-SPR sensor without dielectric,the optimized FUV-NGWSPR sensor can realize simultaneous improvement of sensitivity and figure of merit.In addition,the FUV-NGWSPR sensor with realistic materials(diamond,Ta_(2)O_(5),and GaN)is also investigated,and 137.84%,52.70%,and 41.89%sensitivity improvements are achieved respectively.This work proposes a method for performance improvement of FUV-SPR sensors by exciting nearly guided-wave,and could be helpful for the high-performance SPR sensor in the short-wavelength region.

A saccharides sensor developed by symmetrical optical waveguide-based surface plasmon resonance

We proposed a new saccharides sensor developed by symmetrical optical waveguide(SOW)-based surface plasmon resonance(SPR).This unique MgF_(2)/Au/MgF_(2)/Analyte film structure results in longer suface plasmon wave(SPW)propagation lengths and depths,leading to an increment of resolution.In this paper,we managed to decorate the dielectric interface(MgF_(2) layer)by depositing a thin polydopamine film as surface adherent that provides a platform for secondary reactions with the probe molecule.3-Aminophenylboronic acid(3-PBA)is chosen to be the saccharides sense probe molecule in the present work.The aqueous huumnor of Diabetes and Cataract patient whose blood glucose level is normal are analyzed and the results dermonstrated that this sensor shows great potential in monitoring the blood siugar and can be adapted in the field of biological monitoring in the future.

Numerical study of a highly sensitive surface plasmon resonance sensor based on circular-lattice holey fiber

A new design of surface plasmon resonance(SPR)sensor employing circular-lattice holey fiber to achieve highsensitivity detection is proposed.The sensing performance of the proposed sensor is numerically investigated and the results indicate that our proposed SPR sensor can be applied to the near-mid infrared detection.Moreover,the maximum wavelength sensitivity of our proposed sensor can reach as high as 1.76×10^(4)nm/refractive index unit(RIU)and the maximum wavelength interrogation resolution can be up to 5.68×10^(-6)RIU when the refractive index(RI)of analyte lies in(1.31,1.36).Thanks to its excellent sensing performance,our proposed SPR sensor will have great potential applications for biological analytes detection,food safety control,bio-molecules detection and so on.

Numerical simulation of a truncated cladding negative curvature fiber sensor based on the surface plasmon resonance effect

A refractive index(RI)sensor based on the surface plasmon resonance effect is proposed using a truncated cladding negative curvature fiber(TC-NCF).The influences of the TC-NCF structure parameters on the sensing performances are investigated and compared with the traditional NCF.The simulation results show that the proposed TC-NCF RI sensor has an ultra-wide detection range from 1.16 to 1.43.The maximum wavelength sensitivity reaches 12400 nm/RIU,and the corresponding R^(2)of the polynomial fitting equation is 0.9999.The maximum and minimum resolutions are 2.56×10^(-5)and 8.06×10^(-6),respectively.In addition,the maximum amplitude sensitivity can reach-379.1 RIU^(-1)when the RI is chosen as 1.43.The proposed TC-NCF RI sensor could be useful in biochemical medicine,environmental monitoring,and food safety.

Simulation and analysis of phase-sensitive surface plasmon resonance sensor based on enhanced optical transmission through arrays of nanoholes in silver films

A high spatial resolution, phase-sensitive Surface Plasmon Resonance(SPR) sensor based on Extraordinary Optical Transmission(EOT) is proposed to monitor the binding of organic and biological molecules to the silver surface. The 2D nanohole-array configuration is well suited for dense integration in a sensor chip. The optical geometry is collinear, which simplifies the alignment with respect to the traditional Kretschmann arrangement for SPR sensing. Various design parameters of the device have been studied by simulation. The heterodyne technique is used to improve the sensitivity. The optimization results indicate that the sensor has the advantages of achieving high resolution and a wide dynamic range simultaneously.

High sensitivity refractive index gas sensing enhanced by surface plasmon resonance with nano-cavity antenna array

The surface plasmon resonance gas sensor is presented for refractive index detection using nano-cavity antenna array. The gas sensor monitors the changes of the refractive index by measuring the spectral shift of the resonance dip, for modulating the wavelength of incident light. It is demonstrated that minute changes in the refractive index of a medium close to the surface of a metal film, owing to a shift in the resonance dip of the wavelength, can be detected. The average detection sensitivity is about 3200 nm/RIU （refractive index units）, which is more than twice that of a metal grating-based gas sensor. The reflectivity of the surface plasmon resonance dip is only - 0.03%, and the full widths at half maximum （FWHMs） of bandwidth of the angle and wavelength are - 0.20° and 4.71 nm, respectively.

Engineering a Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance Platform for Molecular Biosensing

In this work, we introduce a new perspective on the development of Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) optical biosensors. Computational simulations, focused on the assessment of the LSPR spectrum and spatial distribution of the electromagnetic field enhancement near a metallic nanoparticle, elucidated the behavior of crucial parameters, as figure of merit, bulk and molecular sensitivity, which governs a LSPR sensor performance. Gold and silver nanospheres were explored as starting point to assess plasmonic optical characteristics of the nanostructured sensor platform. Here, for the first time in the literature, Campbell’s model was evaluated exploiting a NP size-dependence approach. The theoretical analyses indicate a nonlinear behavior of the bulk and molecular sensitivity as function of the NP size. Substantial LSPR peak shifts due to the adsorption of molecules layer on a NP surface were observed for nanoparticles with ~5 nm and ~40 nm radius. Moreover, on molecular sensing, LSPR peak shift is also determined by the thickness of adsorbed molecular shell layers. We observed that for 40 nm radius gold and silver nanospheres, significant LSPR peak shift could be induced by small (few nm) thickness change of the adsorbate shell layer. Moreover, this work provides insights on the LSPR behavior due to adsorption of molecular layer on a NP surface, establishing a new paradigm on engineering LSPR biosensor. Furthermore, the proposed approach can be extended to engineer an efficiently use of different nanostructures on molecular sensing.

Effects of thickness & shape on localized surface plasmon resonance of sexfoil nanoparticles

Localized surface plasmon （LSPR） resonance and sensing properties of a novel nanostructure （sexfoil nanoparticle） are studied using the finite-difference time-domain method. For the sandwich sexfoil nanoparticle, the calculated extinction spectrum shows that with the thickness of the dielectric layer increasing, long-wavelength peaks blueshift, while short- wavelength peaks redshift. Strong near-field coupling of the upper and lower metal layers leads to electric and magnetic field resonances; as the thickness increases, the electric field resonance gradually increases, while the magnetic field resonance decreases. The obtained refractive index sensitivity and figure of merit are 332 nm/RIU and 3.91 RIU^-1, respectively. In order to obtain better sensing ability, we further research the LSPR character of monolayer Ag sexfoil nanoparticle. After a series of trials to optimize the thickness and shape, the refractive index sensitivity approximates 668 nm/RIU, and the greatest figure of merit value comes to 14.8 RIU^-1.

Influence of Technological Factors on Sensitivity of Analytical Devices Based on Surface Plasmon Resonance

Considered in this paper are the factors influencing sensitivity of analytical devices based on surface plasmon resonance phenomenon. The decrease in temperature influence on sensitivity of these devices can be reached using thermo stabilization of the whole device with flow cells for studied substances. Adduced here are some results concerning the influence of deposition geometry for nano-dimensional gold layer covering the surface of operating element on sensitivity of these devices.

Development and Application of Time-Resolved Surface Plasmon Resonance Spectrometer

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor, an optical sensor exploiting special electromagnetic waves-surface plasmon polaritons to probe interactions between an analyte in solution and a molecular recognition element immobilized on the SPR sensor surface, has been widely used in various realms, such as investigating biomolecular interactions and binding properties, detection of biological and chemical analytes, environmental monitoring, food safety and medical diagnostics. This paper reviews the development of SPR sensors and SPR commercial instruments, and emphatically introduces the time-resolved surface plasmon resonance (TR-SPR) techniques. The excellent performances of high sensitivity and rapid detection are easily achieved with TR-SPR spectrometer, whereas the traditional SPR spectrometer cannot be accomplished. Therefore, TR-SPR spectrometer is appropriate for real time analysis of bio-recognition events and small molecular dynamics. However, only two commercial TR-SPR instruments have been exhibited at present, Thermo FT-SPR 100 and Autolab ESPRIT (SPRINGLE). Unfortunately, the high-priced instruments are not suitable for extensive applications in laboratories at present. Herein, a novel commercial TR-SPR spectrometer has been introduced in this review.

On-chip readout plasmonic mid-IR gas sensor

Gas identification and concentration measurements are important for both understanding and monitoring a variety of phenomena from industrial processes to environmental change.Here a novel mid-IR plasmonic gas sensor with on-chip direct readout is proposed based on unity integration of narrowband spectral response,localized field enhancement and thermal detection.A systematic investigation consisting of both optical and thermal simulations for gas sensing is presented for the first time in three sensing modes including refractive index sensing,absorption sensing and spectroscopy,respectively.It is found that a detection limit less than 100 ppm for CO2 could be realized by a combination of surface plasmon resonance enhancement and metal-organic framework gas enrichment with an enhancement factor over 8000 in an ultracompact optical interaction length of only several microns.Moreover,on-chip spectroscopy is demonstrated with the compressive sensing algorithm via a narrowband plasmonic sensor array.An array of 80 such sensors with an average resonance linewidth of 10 nm reconstructs the CO2 molecular absorption spectrum with the estimated resolution of approximately 0.01 nm far beyond the state-of-the-art spectrometer.The novel device design and analytical method are expected to provide a promising technique for extensive applications of distributed or portable mid-IR gas sensor.

High sensitivity plasmonic temperature sensor based on a side-polished photonic crystal fiber

A high sensitivity plasmonic temperature sensor based on a side-polished photonic crystal fiber is proposed in this work.In order to achieve high sensitivity and high stability,the gold layer is coated on the side-polished photonic crystal fiber to support surface plasmon resonance.The mixture of ethanol and chloroform is used as the thermosensitive liquid.The performances of the proposed temperature sensor were investigated by the finite element method(FEM).Simulation results indicate that the sensitivity of the temperature sensor is as high as 7.82 nm/℃.It has good linearity(R;=0.99803),the resolution of 1.1×10;℃,and the amplitude sensitivity of 0.1008℃;.In addition,the sizes of the small air hole and polishing depth have little influence on the sensitivity.Therefore,the proposed sensor shows a high structure tolerance.The excellent performance and high structure tolerance of the sensor make it an appropriate choice for temperature measurement.

A Photonic Crystal Fiber Based Asymmetric Slotted Structured Highly Sensitive Refractive Index Plasmonic Biosensor

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors have grown in popularity owing to their sensitivity, precision, and capacity for a variety of applications, including detection, monitoring, and sensing, among others. Sensitivity and resolution are two areas where this technology has room for development. A plasmonic biosensor based on an asymmetric slotted PCF structure with extremely high sensitivity has been described and theoretically investigated. This high performance sensor is constructed and completely characterized using finite element method in COMSOL Multiphysics software environment. Sensitivity and resolution are analyzed as performance parameters for the proposed sensor. Numerical simulation exhibits the maximum wavelength-sensitivity of 1100 nm/RIU with 9.09 × 10-6 RIU resolution in the broad measurement range of refractive index from 1.30 to 1.44. A polarization controller can be used to fine-tune this extremely sensitive and wide-ranging refractive index sensor to fulfil a variety of practical needs. This is performed with the consideration of the variation in the refractive index (RI) of the analyte channels. In comparison with earlier PCF-based sensors, the fiber design structure is basic, symmetrical, simple to produce, and cost-effective. Because of the asymmetric air holes and higher sensitivities of the refractive index detector, it is possible to identify biomolecules, biochemicals and other analytes.