Surface plasmon resonance, which utilizes the resonance of optical evanescent wave with the metal surface plasmon wave, has been developed into a high sensitivity, rapid, label-less measurement method for chemical and biological analysis. In order to improve the spectral sensitivity in refractive index for a side polished fiber surface plasmon resonance sensor, the whole cladding layer and part of core of a multimode fiber was polished off. Additionally, an extra chrome layer with relatively high refractive index was coated on the polished zone before a gold film. The results showed that the sensor can measure the refractive index range from 1.333 to 1. 431 RIU, with the average spectral sensitivity of 4.11 x 10(3) nm RIU(-1), which is better than the reported results. Especially, in the refractive index range of 1. 417 1. 431 RIU, the sensitivity reaches to 1.09 x 10(4) nm RIU(-1). The minimum resolution of approximately 3.6 x 10(-5) RIU was estimated by a combination analysis with the sensor sensitivity and stability. The superiorities possessed by the proposed sensor in high sensitivity, wide detection range, small size and good stability and reproducibility, etc., make it a good candidate for food testing, environmental monitoring, biomedical testing and other related fields.