In this work, a highly sensitive dual-core configured microchannel-based plasmonic refractive index (RI) sensor was investigated, which can be used for low RI detection. Both the sensing layer and the plasmonic material layer were built outside of the fiber design to detect the surrounding medium's RI changes. Additionally, the effects of different plasmonic materials gold (Au), silver (Ag), and copper (Cu) toward sensitivity were investigated for the same structure. An adhesive agent was used in this work, titanium dioxide (TiO2), and was coated on top of the plasmonic material to prevent the oxidation of Ag and Cu. The coupling strength between the fundamental mode and the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) mode was observed to be very strong due to the TiO2 adhesive agent. With a resolution of 7.41 × 10-7 RIU, maximum wavelength sensitivity (WS) of 135,000 nm/RIU and amplitude sensitivity (AS) of 3239 RIU-1 were achieved using the proposed sensor while using Au as a plasmonic material for an analyte RI range of 1.29-1.39. A detailed study of relevant literature revealed that the achieved wavelength sensitivity for plasmonic material gold (Au) is the highest among reported photonic crystal fiber (PCF)-surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors to date.
Keywords: D-Shaped photonic crystal fiber; bimetallic coating; refractive index; surface plasmon resonance.