This paper proposes a Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCF) refractive index sensor model based on the surface plasmon resonance effect. The proposed PCF model also uses the full vector finite element method to transfer the structure under the anisotropic Perfect Matching Layer (PML) boundary condition. Numerical calculations were carried out on the sensor characteristics. The calculation results show that the elliptical air hole on the left side of the PCF core is coated with a gold-nano film which serves as a Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) sensing channel to detect the refractive index of liquid materials. Compared with other structures, the resonant peak generated by the excited SPR effect from the elliptical sensing channel has a high sensitivity to the change of the refractive index of the liquid to be measured. With the help of this attribute, it is relatively easy to adjust the sensitivity. The refractive index range of this structure is within 1.43-1.49 and the sensitivity is up to 12,719.97 nm·RIU-1. The linearity is good; R2 = 0.99927, which is very suitable for liquid sensing.
Keywords: finite element method; linearity; liquid sensor; photonic crystal fiber; refractive index; sensitivity; surface plasmon resonance effect.