In this study, the silver mirror reaction was used to coat the silver film on the surface of self-made microstructured fiber (MSF) to stimulate the surface plasmon resonance effect, and Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) with a high thermal-optical coefficient was coated on the silver film as temperature-sensitive material. The MSF with silver and PDMS films was coupled with multi-mode fiber on both sides to form the temperature sensor. In this sensor system, the energy is coupled into the cladding of the microstructure fiber by multi-mode fiber, and the surface plasmon resonance can be further excitated in the MSF. When the temperature of the external environment changes, the refractive index of PDMS will also change. At this time, combined with the surface plasmon resonance effect, a resonant absorption peak corresponding to the temperature appears in the transmission spectrum so that the temperature can be measured quickly and accurately. We found that, in the temperature range of 35 °C to 95 °C, the average temperature sensitivity of the sensor during heating and cooling was -0.83 nm/°C and -0.84 nm/°C, respectively. The advantages of this sensor are the simple structure, convenient operation and good reversibility. The relative sensitivity deviation value (RSD = 0.0059) showed that the sensor has high stability. The temperature sensor based on MSF has favorable prospects for use in fields such as medical treatment, biochemical detection and intelligent monitoring.
Keywords: microstructure fiber; polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS); silver mirror reaction; surface plasmon resonance; temperature sensor.