University of Birmingham
Photonic Crystal Fiber Based Plasmonic Sensors
Rifat, Ahmmed A.; Ahmed, Rijab; Yetisen, Ali; Butt, Haider; Sabouri, Aydin; Mahdiraji, G.
Amouzad; Yun, Seok Hyun; Mahamd Adikan, Faisal Rafiq
DOI:
10.1016/j.snb.2016.11.113
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Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)
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Peer reviewed version
Citation for published version (Harvard):
Rifat, AA, Ahmed, R, Yetisen, A, Butt, H, Sabouri, A, Mahdiraji, GA, Yun, SH & Mahamd Adikan, FR 2017,
'Photonic Crystal Fiber Based Plasmonic Sensors', Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, vol. 243, pp. 311-325.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2016.11.113
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Download date: 10. Aug. 2022
Accepted Manuscript
Title: Photonic Crystal Fiber Based Plasmonic Sensors
Author: Ahmmed A. Rifat Rajib Ahmed Ali K. Yetisen
Haider Butt Aydin Sabouri G. Amouzad Mahdiraji Seok Hyun
Yun F.R. Mahamd Adikan
PII: S0925-4005(16)31911-6
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1016/j.snb.2016.11.113
Reference: SNB 21323
To appear in: Sensors and Actuators B
Received date: 26-7-2016
Revised date: 20-11-2016
Accepted date: 22-11-2016
Please cite this article as: Ahmmed A.Rifat, Rajib Ahmed, Ali K.Yetisen, Haider
Butt, Aydin Sabouri, G.Amouzad Mahdiraji, Seok Hyun Yun, F.R.Mahamd Adikan,
Photonic Crystal Fiber Based Plasmonic Sensors, Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2016.11.113
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1
Photonic Crystal Fiber Based Plasmonic Sensors
Ahmmed A. Rifat,
1
Rajib Ahmed,
2
Ali K. Yetisen,
3,4
Haider Butt,
2
Aydin Sabouri,
2
G.
Amouzad Mahdiraji,
1
Seok Hyun Yun,
3,4
and F. R. Mahamd Adikan
1,
*
1
Integrated Lightwave Research Group, Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,
University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur-50603, Malaysia
2
Nanotechnology Laboratory, School of Engineering Sciences, University of Birmingham,
Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
3
Harvard Medical School and Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General
Hospital, 65 Landsdowne Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
4
Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
*Corresponding author: rafiq@um.edu.my
Abstract
The development of highly-sensitive miniaturized sensors that allow real-time quantification of
analytes is highly desirable in medical diagnostics, veterinary testing, food safety, and
environmental monitoring. Photonic Crystal Fiber Surface Plasmon Resonance (PCF SPR) has
emerged as a highly-sensitive portable sensing technology for testing chemical and biological
analytes. PCF SPR sensing combines the advantages of PCF technology and plasmonics to
accurately control the evanescent field and light propagation properties in single or multimode
configurations. This review discusses fundamentals and fabrication of fiber optic technologies
incorporating plasmonic coatings to rationally design, optimize and construct PCF SPR sensors
as compared to conventional SPR sensing. PCF SPR sensors with selective metal coatings of
fibers, silver nanowires, slotted patterns, and D-shaped structures for internal and external
microfluidic flows are reviewed. This review also includes potential applications of PCF SPR
sensors, identifies perceived limitations, challenges to scaling up, and provides future directions
for their commercial realization.
Keywords: Surface Plasmon Resonance, Photonic Crystal Fibers, Optical Fiber Sensors,
Biosensors.
2
1 Introduction
Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors have attracted lots of interests due to their unique
capabilities such as high sensitivity and wide range of applications in environment monitoring
[1], food safety [2, 3], water testing [4], liquid detection [5, 6], gas detection [7, 8], biosensing
[9, 10], and medical diagnostics [11], including drug detection [12, 13], bioimaging [14],
biological analyte [15, 16], and chemical detection [16-19] (Figure 1). SPR effects are also
utilized in optoelectronic devices such as optical tunable filters [20, 21], modulators [22, 23],
SPR imaging [24, 25], and thin-film thickness monitoring [26, 27]. Besides the SPR techniques
some other optical sensing techniques are also available such as microring resonators,
waveguides, and resonant mirror [28, 29]. In 1950s, surface plasmons (SPs) were theoretically
introduced by Ritchie [30]. Based on SPs using the attenuated total reflection (ATR) method,
prism coupled SPR Otto configuration was studied by Otto [31], where the prism and plasmonic
metal layer were separated by a dielectric (sample) medium. The sensing technique in this study
was quite sophisticated as it was required to maintain a finite gap between the prism and metallic
layer. The Otto configuration was upgraded by Kretschmann setup, where the prism and metallic
layer were in direct contact [32]. To date, Kretschmann and Otto configurations have been
among top popular techniques for generating the surface plasmon waves (SPWs). By matching
the frequency of incident photons and surface electrons, free electrons are resonating which
results in generation and propagation of SPW along the metal-dielectric interface. [33, 34]. The
fundamental principle of conventional SPR sensors are also described (Supporting Information,
Figure S1). In the 1980s, a SPR sensor was experimentally demonstrated for chemical and
biological detection [15]. SPR sensors require a metallic layer that enables transport of large
amount of the free electrons. These free electrons are contributing in negative permittivity, which
3
is essential for plasmonic materials. Conventional prism based Kretschmann setup is widely used
for SPR sensors, where a prism coated with plasmonic materials is used [18]. As dielectric
refractive index (RI) is altered, the propagation constant of the surface plasmon mode is altered
which results in changing the coupling conditions or properties of light wave and SPW [16].
Although the performance of prism based SPR sensors (Kretschmann setup) is robust, they
are suffering from bulky configuration due to the required optical and mechanical components.
These requirements limit the optimization and practical application of these devices at point-of-
care settings [18]. The bulky optomechanical components required for the angular interrogation
in these devices are also at high costs. Commercial SPR systems such as Biacore, GE Healthcare
are also not competitive compared to other devices for industrial application. The conventional
SPR sensors are not suitable for field-based applications as a results of moving optical and
mechanical parts [18]. The limitations of conventional SPR sensors led to emerging the
conventional optical fiber based SPR sensor for chemical sensing applications in the 1990s [17].
There have been various configurations proposed for optical fiber based SPR sensors to provide
wider operating range and higher resolution [35-38]. However, optical fiber based SPR sensors
are required to direct the incident light at a narrow angle. A planar photonic crystal waveguide-
based SPR biosensor was reported where the low refractive index analyte was used for matching
the phases [39]. In late 20s, the microstructured optical fiber (MOF) based SPR was proposed
[40]. To date, numerous PCF SPR sensors have been demonstrated with different configuration
of PCF structures which altering the prism [41-60]. PCF based SPR sensing are capable to be
