Sensing and Bio-Sensing Research 34 (2021) 100462

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Sensing and Bio-Sensing Research

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/sbsr

Au-strip’s shape dependent performance of D-shaped SPR based sensors

Sheikh Shahriar Hossain a, b, Md Rejvi Kaysir a, *, Md Jahirul Islam a, Elora Nahid a,
Mohammad Shaifur Rahman a
a
Photonics Research Group, Department of EEE, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, Khulna 9230, Bangladesh
b
Department of EEE, North Western University, Khulna 9100, Bangladesh

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: D-shaped Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) based sensors show great promise for detecting different analytes
SPR with improved sensitivity and resolution. This work focuses on the investigation of the effect of gold (Au) strip’s
Plasmonic shape on the performance of D-shaped SPR sensor having a single mode germanium (Ge) core and microfluidic
Sensitivity
channel for analytes. Three different designs of Au strips namely, flat (design A), parabolic (design B), and
Confinement loss
combined (design C) having mixing of small flat and parabolic strips are considered here. The detailed numerical
Au- strip
Core investigations are performed for all the designs using the finite element method. The highest wavelength and
SPP modes amplitude sensitivities are found to be 44 μm/RIU and 115.85 RIU− 1, respectively at a resolution of 2.27 × 10− 06
for the parabolic-shaped Au strip (i.e., design B). Alternately, design A shows reduced wavelength and amplitude
sensitivities of 13 μm/RIU and 51.43 RIU− 1, respectively with a resolution of 7.69 × 10− 06. Similarly, design C
reveals the wavelength and amplitude sensitivities of 14 μm/RIU and 45.01 RIU− 1, respectively with a resolution
of 7.14 × 10− 06. Thus, the sensitivity of D-shaped SPR based sensors could be tuned significantly by modifying
only the shape of the metal strip. This analysis would be useful in designing highly sensitive SPR based sensors.

1. Introduction fabrication [8,11].

The fundamental principle of the SPR sensor is based on the reso­
Although the phenomenon of Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) was nance of a strong electromagnetic field oscillation at the interface of a
observed by Wood [1] almost a century ago, the application of such metal and dielectric medium. At a certain angle of incidence, a portion
experience in sensing applications started in the 1990s. SPR is referred of the incident light energy couples to the electrons in the metal surface
to as the oscillations of the charge density at the junction interface of the layer, which then moves due to excitation. The electron movements are
dielectric and metal upon the incident of light [1]. This phenomenon can referred to as plasmon. The plasmon oscillation, in turn, generates an
be utilized effectively to identify very little change in the refractive electric field on the boundary between the metal surface and sample
index (RI) of the sensing elements [2]. Exploiting the SPR principle and solution (i.e., dielectric). The defined SPR angle, at which resonance
RI measurement, several types and arrangements are suggested in the occurs at the condition of the given light source wavelength and metal
literature for sensing purposes [2–4]. Application of SPR includes but is thin surface, is dependent on the refractive index of the material near the
not limited to the areas of physical, chemical and biological measure­ metal surface [10,12].
ments, biomolecular interaction examination [5], accurate and fast To exploit the benefits of SPR in sensing applications, researchers
determination of analytes in proteins, toxins, DNA, pathological sam­ explored PCF of different types, shapes, compositions, and different
ples, glucose [6], virus detection [7], etc. The other applications include metals [13–15]. For instance, single to multi air hole PCF, polymer PCF,
environmental monitoring (e.g., air quality), quality control in food micro-structured core, U and D-shaped SPR based sensors are reported
industries, organic chemical sensing, theranostics, pharmaceuticals, in literature [1,13–19]. Interestingly, the D-shaped SPR sensors, the
detection of drugs, homeland security, pH, and temperature sensors cross-section of which looks like the English alphabet D, attained great
[6,8–10]. It is noteworthy to mention that SPR based on photonic crystal attention as these sensors show very high sensitivity by exploiting the
fiber (PCF) accumulates several advantages such as compact size, principle of evanescent wave absorption [20,21]. Also, the
robustness, ease of use, tunability of guiding properties, and flexibility in manufacturing process of such a sensor is well matured [22]. In general,

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (M.R. Kaysir).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbsr.2021.100462
Received 15 August 2021; Received in revised form 13 October 2021; Accepted 21 October 2021
Available online 23 October 2021
2214-1804/© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
S.S. Hossain et al. Sensing and Bio-Sensing Research 34 (2021) 100462

gold, silver, or aluminum are used as the plasmon active materials for 2. SPR sensor model and simulation procedure
these SPR sensors [23]. These materials have plasma frequencies that
are in the visible range, and among the three metals, gold shows better 2.1. Sensor structure
performance due to its chemical stability [16].
Several studies on the D-shaped SPR sensors have been carried out. The schematic representation of the D-shaped SPR sensor having a
Patnaik et al. reported a graphene-based SPR sensor designed with microfluidic channel is shown in Fig. 1 that is used to demonstrate the
conducting metal oxide and found a sensitivity of 5700 nm/RIU and a effects of different Au strip shapes. It has a single mode germanium (Ge)
maximum resolution of 1.754 × 10− 5 RIU [16]. Later, the D-shaped core and a one-sided large D-shaped channel. The diameter of the fiber
polarization-maintaining fiber is experimentally explored by Qazi et al., core is considered to be 9 μm, which is surrounded by silica cladding of
where aluminum oxide polishing film is used for more interaction with diameter 125 μm. As stated, the effects of three different Au strip shapes
analytes [24]. In 2017, high sensitivity of 7381 nm/RIU has been re­ — rectangular, parabolic, and combined (mixing of parabolic and
ported from an experiment conducted by Xie et al. considering different rectangular) are investigated in this work. Au strip is primarily placed at
side polished lengths [2]. Later in 2019, single-mode fiber-based D- a distance, D = 1.05 μm from the core. The initial width (W) and
shaped SPR sensors were numerically investigated by Pathak et al. [25]. thickness (t) of the Au strip are considered to be 9 μm and 0.03 μm,
In that work, a striped gold layer has been used with a large microfluidic respectively. The designed sensor with the aforementioned structural
channel (D-shaped) for potential applications in chemical and biological parameters supports single mode operation. It is noted that the key
sensing. A very high sensitivity between 7000 and 11,000 nm/RIU is benefit of having single mode core is to connect it with a standard single
found for different refractive indices range of analytes. The method re­ mode probe so that there is no need for extra interconnection facilities
ported is very promising as it uses a single-mode Ge core that is suitable for practical implementation.
for input and output coupling, and requires further analysis in terms of The light is launched to the single mode core of the sensor through
strip size, shape, and positions of gold (i.e., Au) strips. standard single mode connector and the light is leaked from the core
In the present work, a detailed study on the effect of the shape of the mode and coupled to the cladding mode of the sensor according to the
Au-strip on the performance of the D-shape SPR sensor is investigated surface plasmon resonance principle. The loss of light (both spectral and
thoroughly. Three different designs were primarily investigated – design magnitude) is dependent on the refractive index (na) of the microfluidic
A (flat strip), design B (parabolic strip), and design C (combined strip). channel. Once the fiber is properly characterized, the measurement of
First, the effects of important design parameters (e.g., length and loss gives the unknown values of analytes’ RI, and in this way the sensor
thickness of the Au strip and separation of the Au strip from the core) of works as a RI sensor.
design A on the confinement loss are investigated thoroughly and an
optimized set of parameters were obtained. Then, keeping these pa­ 2.2. Computational procedures
rameters fixed, the shape of the Au strip was considered to be parabolic
instead of flat. A significant improvement in sensitivity and resolution of To investigate the effects of different shapes of Au strip on the per­
the SPR sensor was observed by tuning the shape of the Au strip. Finally, formance of the proposed D-shaped SPR sensor, electric field distribu­
design C incorporates a combined Au structure having two small rect­ tion, retrieved from the solution of Maxwell’s equations, is crucial. To
angular and two parabolic Au strips to see the performance variation find out the field distribution pattern, in other words—modes of the
with the possible fabrication uncertainties. This information would be electric field can be found using COMSOL Multiphysics [26]. This soft­
helpful for the designer to tune the structural design parameters to have ware uses the finite element method (FEM) [27] to solve the PDEs
a highly sensitive D-shaped SPR based sensor. encapsulated in Maxwell’s equation. The flow chart of designing the SPR
sensors in COMSOL Multiphysics and the procedure to evaluate the
performance indicating parameters are shown in Fig. 2.
In the present analysis, two modes: core and surface plasmon

Fig. 1. The schematic 3D representation of the D-shaped SPR sensor having single mode Ge core with a large microfluidic channel for analytes with Au strip. The
cross-sectional view with the modification of the three shapes of the Au strip is also presented here (a) rectangular, (b) parabolic, and (c) mixing of the rectangular
and parabolic strips. Here, t and W are the thickness and width of the Au strip, respectively and D denotes the separation of the Au strip from the core. Also, Au-gap is
the length of the air gap between Au strips as shown in (c).

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S.S. Hossain et al. Sensing and Bio-Sensing Research 34 (2021) 100462

[28,31], i.e.,
Δλpeak ( μm )
Sλ = (4)
Δna RIU
The amplitude sensitivity (SA) is another important parameter for the
performance analysis and can be defined as
( ) 1 ∂LC (λ, na )
SA RIU − 1 = − (5)
LC (λ, na ) ∂na
Here, LC(λ, na) is the CL when the refractive index of the analyte is na.
∂LC(λ, na) represents the change in LC when two adjacent analyte RIs
change.
For designing the sensor, the determination of sensor wavelength
resolution is also crucial. The sensor wavelength resolution is defined as
[32].
/
R(RIU) = Δna × Δλmin Δλpeak, (6)

where λpeak represents maximum resonant wavelength shift when the RI

of analyte changes by Δna. Here, Δλmin denotes the minimum spectral
resolution.

3. Results and discussion

In this section, the performance of D-shaped SPR sensors with the

three different shapes of the Au strip is investigated thoroughly using the
numerical data found from the finite element calculations. Firstly, the
dispersion relationship of a flat Au strip sensor is primarily investigated.
Then, the design parameters of the Au strip such as strip thickness, strip
length, and the distance between the core and strip are optimized by
Fig. 2. The flowchart of designing and evaluating the performance indicating investigating the highest loss peaks. After getting the optimized pa­
parameters of SPR based sensors. rameters, the sensitivity (both amplitude and wavelength) of the flat Au
strip SPR sensor is calculated. Keeping the optimized parameters fixed,
polariton (SPP) have been used to investigate the sensor performance. In the shape of the Au strip was then converted to parabolic from flat.
the design, germanium (Ge), silica (Si), and gold (Au) have been used as Finally, a mixture of the flat and parabolic-shaped strip is considered to
the core, cladding, and metal strip, respectively. The refractive indicies investigate how the fabrication uncertainty affects the performance of
of Si and Ge are calculated by using the Sellmeier equation given by the sensor.
[28].

B1 λ 2 B2 λ2 B3 λ2 3.1. Dispersion relation of flat Au strip sensor

n2 (λ) = 1 + 2
+ 2 + 2 (1)
λ − C1 λ − C2 λ − C3
Fig. 3 shows the variation of confinement loss (CL) in dB/mm and
where, λ denotes the wavelength in μm, n is the wavelength-dependent real part of effective refractive index (neff) for both core and SPP modes
refractive index of Si or Ge. The Sellmeier constant parameters for both of the flat Au-strip based sensors, where the analyte’s RI is taken to be
Ge and Si are taken from Ref. [25].
The dielectric function of the gold strip is found from the Drude-
Lorentz model and is given by [29].

ωp 2 Δε Ω2L
εAu = 5.9675 − − ( 2 ) (2)
ω(ω + iγD ) ω − Ω2L + iΓL ω

where, ωp is the plasma frequency and γD is the damping coefficient. ΩL

and ΓL are the oscillator strength and spectral width, respectively.
To find out the dispersion relation, the calculation of confinement
loss (LC) is necessary. For the calculation of LC in dB/mm, the following
relationship is used [30].
( )
LC (dB/mm) = 8.686 × K0 × Im neff × 103 (3)

where, Im(neff) is the imaginary part of the effective refractive index and
free-space wave vector, K0 = (2π/λ); λ being the wavelength of the
incident light.
In addition, one of the crucial parameters to determine the perfor­
mance of the proposed system is sensitivity. There are two types of
sensitivities: wavelength and amplitude. The wavelength sensitivity (Sλ) Fig. 3. Dispersion curve [Re{neff} for both core and SPP modes and Loss (dB/
of the system is defined as the change in resonance wavelength peak mm) as a function of wavelength] for the rectangular Au strip sensor for a fixed
(Δλpeak) in μm at per unit of change of refractive index of the analyte RI of analyte (na = 1.33). Here, the other design parameters are w = 9 μm, t =
0.03 μm, and D = 1.05 μm.

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S.S. Hossain et al. Sensing and Bio-Sensing Research 34 (2021) 100462

1.33. The other structural parameters such as length of the strip (W), 3.3. Sensitivity analysis for the optimized flat Au strip sensor (design A)
strip thickness (t), and the distance between the core and Au strip (D) are
taken to be 9 μm, 0.03 μm, and 1.05 μm, respectively. These parameters In the previous section, the effect of the variation of CL spectra with
are primarily selected to show the behavior of the fiber as an SPR sensor, three important parameters namely the separation of Au strip from the
which depicts that it follows the basic principle of the sensor. The neff for core, length and thickness of the Au strip are thoroughly investigated at
both core and SPP modes are decreasing with the wavelength in the a constant value of the analyte’s RI of na = 1.33. This section focuses on
range of 1.40 μm to 1.80 μm, where they intersect at a wavelength of the investigation of the performance (e.g., sensitivity) of the sensor by
1.55 μm. It is noted that the CL is found to be maximum at this wave­ considering the optimized design parameters as found in the previous
length, which is ~45 dB/mm. As shown in Fig. 3, the light from the core section.
mode leaks out and couples to the SPP mode with the increase of Fig. 7 shows the variation of the CL spectra by changing the analytes’
wavelength, and this coupling gets maximum value at the resonance RI ranging from 1.31 to 1.42. It is seen that both magnitude and resonant
wavelength where the loss is found to be the maximum. The corre­ frequency are changed with the analyte’s RI, which can be quantified
sponding mode pictures are shown in the inset of the figure. and characterized to make it an effective RI sensor. As stated in Section
As said, these parameters are primarily selected to show the funda­ 2.2, two parameters (wavelength and amplitude sensitivities) are
mental behavior of the SPR sensor. In the next section, the detailed introduced to evaluate the performance of the SPR sensor, which is also
analysis of the variation of design parameters of the Au flat strip is required to compare the performance among different designs.
investigated to find out the optimal design parameters. Fig. 8(a) shows the change in peak wavelength shift with the ana­
lyte’s RI. This graph is not linear for the whole range of analyte’s RI
ranging from 1.31 to 1.41. However, we separated two regions and
3.2. Optimization of parameters for flat Au strip-based sensor
made a linear fit of the two data sets as shown in the figure, where the
slope of the linear fitting data represents the average wavelength
3.2.1. Effect of separation of Au strip from the core (D)
sensitivity. It signified that how much the peak (i.e., resonant) wave­
Fig. 4(a) shows the variation of CL with the incident light wavelength
length shift for a given change in analyte’s RI. The wavelength sensi­
as a function of the separation (D) between the core boundary and the
tivities are found to be 2.8 μm/RIU and 9.2 μm/RIU for the range of
Au strip. It is seen that the CL initially increases with the wavelength and
analyte’s RI from 1.31 to 1.37 and 1.38 to 1.41, respectively. Fig. 8(b)
then decreases after reaching a maximum CL point. The optimization of
shows the variation of amplitude sensitivity with the wavelength as a
the D is taken in such a way that one can get the maximum loss peak.
function of the analyte’s RI (na), which is calculated according to Eq. (5).
Fig. 4(b) shows that the variation of peak loss with the separation of Au
It is seen that the peak amplitude sensitivity increases with the na, and
strip, where the peak loss is found to be at 1.50 μm.
the peak amplitude sensitivity is found to be 54 RIU− 1 at na = 1.41. The
detailed calculation and summary of the results for design A are
3.2.2. Effect of length of Au strip (W)
described in Table 1.
The length (W) of the Au strip plays a crucial role in optimizing the
performance of SPR sensors. Fig. 5(a) Show the variation of CL spectra as
a function of the W. Both peak loss magnitude and resonance wave­ 3.4. Sensitivity analysis for parabolic Au strip sensor (design B)
length shift significantly for the variation of W. Fig. 5(b) shows that the
peak loss initially increases with the increase of the W and decreases This section investigates the detailed characteristics of the sensor by
after a certain point, where the peak CL is found to be at 7 μm. changing the Au strip design from flat to parabolic shaped. The opti­
mized parameters that are investigated in Fig. 7 are kept constant for the
3.2.3. Effect of thickness of Au strip (t) analysis in this section. As this paper aimed at investigating the effect of
Fig. 6(a) shows the variation of CL spectra as a function of the the shape of Au strip on the performance of D-shaped SPR sensors, this
thickness of the Au strip ranging from t = 0.015 μm to 0.035 μm. It is information helps the designer to tune the shape effectively during the
seen that the peak CL decreases with the increase of Au strip thickness, fabrication process to get maximum sensitivity. We verified the disper­
and this information is clearly shown in Fig. 6(b), where the peak CL is sion relationship of the parabolic-shaped Au-strip (not shown here),
found to be at 0.015 μm. which shows the peak confinement loss occurs at the wavelength of 2.75

80
D = 1.30 Pm
Peak Confinement Loss (dB/mm)

D = 1.35 Pm 75
D = 1.40 Pm
Confinement Loss (dB/mm)

70 D = 1.45 Pm
D = 1.50 Pm
D = 1.55 Pm 70
D = 1.60 Pm
60
65
50
60
40
55
30
2.70 2.75 2.80 2.85 2.90 1.30 1.35 1.40 1.45 1.50 1.55 1.60
Wavelength (Pm) Seperation of Au to core, D (Pm
(a) (b)

Fig. 4. (a) The variation of confinement loss spectra with the change of the separation (D) of flat Au strip from the core at constant values of t = 0.03 μm, W = 9 μm,
and na = 1.33. (b) The change in peak confinement loss with the variation of the separation of the Au strip, where the highest peak loss is found to be at D = 1.50 μm.

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S.S. Hossain et al. Sensing and Bio-Sensing Research 34 (2021) 100462

80
W = 5.5 Pm

Peak Confinement Loss (dB/mm)

W = 6.0 Pm 70
70 W = 6.5 Pm

Confinement Loss (dB/mm)

W = 7.0 Pm
W = 7.5 Pm
60 W = 8.0 Pm
W = 8.5 Pm
60

50
50
40

30 40

20 30
10
2.10 2.25 2.40 2.55 2.70 5 6 7 8 9
Wavelength (Pm) Length of the Au Stripe, W (Pm
(a) (b)
Fig. 5. (a) The variation of confinement loss spectra as a function of the length (W) of flat Au strip at the constant values of t = 0.03 μm, D = 1.05 μm, and na = 1.33.
(b) The change in peak confinement loss with the variation of the length of the Au strip, where the highest peak loss is found to be at W = 7 μm.

60 55
Peak Confinement Loss (dB/mm)
50
Confinement Loss (dB/mm)

50

40
45
30
40
20
t = 0.015 Pm
t = 0.02 Pm 35
10 t = 0.025 Pm
t = 0.03 Pm
t = 0.035 Pm 30
0 0.015 0.020 0.025 0.030 0.035
1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3.0
Thickness of Au stripe, t (Pm)
Wavelength (Pm
(a) (b)

Fig. 6. (a) The variation of confinement loss spectra with the change of the thickness (t) of flat au strip for fixing the values of W = 9 μm, D = 1.05 μm, and na = 1.33.
(b) The change in peak confinement loss with the variation of the thickness of the strip, where the highest peak loss is found to be at t = 0.015 μm.

μm for the analyte’s RI of 1.33. shape of the Au-strip with a combination of both small flat and parabolic
Fig. 9 shows the variation of CL spectra with the analyte’s RI varies strips with three tiny gaps among the strips, where the total length of the
from 1.31 to 1.41. The peak loss increases gradually, and red-shifted strip kept same as rectangular and parabolic strips (See Fig. 1 (c)). This
with the increase of na up to the value of 1.405. Then, the peak loss is structure is chosen to show how the fabrication uncertainties affect the
found to be decreased at the na of 1.41. sensitivities (both wavelength and amplitude) of the proposed D-shaped
Fig. 10(a) shows the variation of peak wavelength shift with the SPR sensors. Fig. 11 shows the variation of spectral loss as a function of
change of na ranging from 1.31 to 1.41. The behavior is similar to the flat the analyte’s RI, where the highest CL was found to be at na= 1.37.
Au strip as the variation is non-linear with na for the considered range. Fig. 12(a) shows the variation of peak wavelength (i.e., resonant
The wavelength sensitivity is found to be 2.8 μm/RIU for the range of na wavelength) with the analyte’s RI, where the linear fitting of the data
= 1.31 to 1.37, which is the same as for the flat Au strip. However, for show two sensitivities of 3.1 μm/RIU and 10.2 μm/RIU for the range of
the range of na = 1.31 to 1.37, the wavelength sensitivity is found to be na= 1.31 to 1.37 and na= 1.38 to 1.42, respectively. The corresponding
11.86 μm/RIU, which is about 1.3 times higher than the flat Au strip. amplitude sensitivity is shown in Fig. 12(b), where the maximum
Fig. 10(b) shows the spectral variation of amplitude sensitivity with the amplitude sensitivity is found to be 45.01 RIU− 1 at na= 1.41.
variation of na. The maximum amplitude sensitivity is found to be at
3.15 μm, which is 115.85 RIU− 1 at na = 1.405. The detailed calculation 4. Comparative analysis
is summarized in Table 1.
4.1. Comparison among designs A, B, and C
3.5. Sensitivity analysis for the combined Au strip sensor (design C)
Table 1 summarizes the detailed results obtained from models A, B,
This section investigates the details of the sensitivity by changing the and C, where several comments can be made by analyzing the data.

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Fig. 7. The variation of confinement loss spectra of optimized flat Au-strip based sensor with analyte’s RI (na) from 1.31 to 1.42. Here, the optimized parameters are
t = 0.015 μm, D = 1.50 μm, and W = 7 μm are taken for the calculation.

Fig. 8. (a) The variation of resonant wavelength shift with the analyte’s RI for the flat Au strip sensor. The linear fitting of the data is also presented to determine the
wavelength sensitivity. (b) The spectral variation of amplitude sensitivity as a function of the analyte’s RI for the flat-shaped Au strip sensor.

Here, we considered design A as a reference one as the design is avail­ parabolic-shaped strip, which helps to couple more light from core mode
able in the literature. The maximum wavelength and amplitude sensi­ to the SPP mode at the resonant frequency (i.e., where the loss gets
tivities for the optimized design of flat strip-based D-shaped SPR sensor maximum). The minimum resolution of this design is found to be 2.27 ×
are found to be 13 μm/RIU and 51.43 RIU− 1 at the analyte’s RI of 1.41. 10− 06 RIU, which is 3.4 times lower than design A. Thus, this parabolic
The corresponding wavelength resolution is found to be 7.69 × 10− 06 design shows much improved sensing capabilities than the flat strip
RIU that is calculated using Eq. (6). It is noted that the minimum spectral design for the same analytes’ RI range due to the improved phase
resolution ( Δλmin) is considered as 1 nm for the wavelength resolution matching coupling phenomenon. This design ensures the accumulation
calculation in this work. The smaller resolution signifies the better of evanescent electromagnetic filed on the surface of the Au-strip so that
detection of the smallest wavelength range. an effective interaction occurs, which results in the stimulation of the
Parabolic strip SPR sensor in design B shows significant improve­ free electrons at the Au-surface. It is also evident in the recent literature
ment in sensitivity (both wavelength and amplitude) and resolution. The that the asymmetrical structure enhances the SPP effects [33], which
maximum amplitude and wavelength sensitivities are found to be 44 verifies our findings.
μm/RIU and 115.85 RIU− 1 at the analyte’s RI of 1.405. The improve­ Design C shows similar performance characteristics as design A. It
ments in both sensitives are due to the larger interaction area of the shows the maximum wavelength and amplitude sensitivities of 14 μm/

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Table 1
Performance comparison of three different Au strip-based D-shaped SPR sensors with a microfluidic channel.
Model (structural Analyte Analyte RI Peak loss Resonance peak Resonance Wavelength Wavelength Amplitude
parameters) RI differences (dB/mm) wavelength (μm) peak shift (μm) sensitivity, Sλ (μm/ resolution (RIU) sensitivity, SA
RIU) (RIU− 1)
05
A (Flat Strip) 1.31 0.02 68.94 2.34 0.05 2.50 4.00 × 10− 18.59
05
t = 0.015 μm, D = 1.50 1.33 0.02 67.77 2.39 0.05 2.50 4.00 × 10− 18.28
05
μm, and W = 7 μm 1.35 0.02 68.66 2.44 0.07 3.50 2.86 × 10− 21.80
05
1.37 0.02 71.04 2.51 0.09 4.50 2.22 × 10− 25.58
05
1.39 0.01 72.94 2.6 0.07 7.00 1.43 × 10− 43.16
05
1.40 0.01 72.66 2.67 0.08 8.00 1.25 × 10− 47.15
06
1.41 0.01 63.50 2.75 0.13 13.00 7.69 × 10− 51.43
1.42 NA 48.96 2.88 NA NA NA NA
05
B (Parabolic Strip) 1.31 0.02 55.80 2.69 0.05 2.50 4.00 × 10− 7.01
05
t = 0.015 μm, D = 1.50 1.33 0.02 57.84 2.74 0.05 2.50 4.00 × 10− 8.84
05
μm, and W = 7 μm 1.35 0.02 60.21 2.79 0.07 3.50 2.86 × 10− 11.61
05
1.37 0.02 63.91 2.86 0.10 5.00 2.00 × 10− 15.93
05
1.39 0.01 69.82 2.96 0.07 7.00 1.43 × 10− 25.41
05
1.40 0.005 73.49 3.03 0.12 24.00 4.17 × 10− 71.57
06
1.405 0.005 77.27 3.15 0.22 44.00 2.27 × 10− 115.85
1.41 NA 42.22 3.37 NA NA NA NA
05
C (Combined Strip) 1.31 0.02 53.47 2.56 0.06 3 3.33 × 10− 12.29
05
t = 0.015 μm, D = 1.50 1.33 0.02 59.27 2.62 0.05 2.5 4.00 × 10− 15.94
05
μm, W = 7 μm, and 1.35 0.02 63.81 2.67 0.08 4 2.50 × 10− 20.10
05
Au_gap = 0.0075 μm 1.37 0.02 64.99 2.75 0.11 5.5 1.82 × 10− 23.40
05
1.39 0.01 59.70 2.86 0.08 8 1.25 × 10− 33.25
05
1.40 0.01 54.67 2.94 0.09 9 1.11 × 10− 37.07
06
1.41 0.01 47.06 3.03 0.14 14 7.14 × 10− 45.01
1.42 NA 34.12 3.17 NA NA NA NA

Fig. 9. The spectral variation of confinement loss as a function of analytes’ RI ranging from 1.31 to 1.41 for parabolic Au strip sensor.

RIU and 45.01 RIU− 1, respectively at the analyte’s RI of 1.41. Also, the to tune their metal strip shape effectively to improve the sensing
lowest resolution for this design is found to be 7.14 × 10− 06 RIU that is performance.
like design A. Thus, this result suggests that the curvature of the Au strip
should be maintained to have the improved SPP phenomena, which
should not have any discontinuity. This information helps the designer

7
S.S. Hossain et al. Sensing and Bio-Sensing Research 34 (2021) 100462

Fig. 10. (a) The variation of resonant wavelength shift with the analyte’s RI for the parabolic-shaped Au strip. The linear fitting of the data is also presented to
determine the wavelength sensitivity. (b) The spectral variation of amplitude sensitivity as a function of the analyte’s RI for the parabolic-shaped Au strip-
based sensor.

Fig. 11. The spectral variation of confinement loss of combined Au strip-based sensor for different analyte’s RI ranging from 1.31 to 1.42.

4.2. Comparison with other designs in the literature sensitivity, wavelength sensitivity, and resolution are taken into
consideration for the comparative studies. Reference literatures are
In addition, to compare the findings of the current study with the selected in such a way that the studies considered refractive indices in
other D-shaped SPR sensors published in the literature, Table 2 is pre­ the range between 1.3 and 1.4 for the analysis. As is shown in Table 2,
sented systematically. The output parameters such as amplitude the wavelength sensitivity of the current system is 44,000 nm/RIU

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S.S. Hossain et al. Sensing and Bio-Sensing Research 34 (2021) 100462

Fig. 12. (a) The variation of resonant wavelength shift with the analyte’s RI for the combined Au strip. The linear fitting of the data is also presented to determine the
wavelength sensitivity. (b) The spectral variation of amplitude sensitivity as a function of the analyte’s RI for the combined Au strip-based sensor.

Table 2
Performance comparison of the proposed parabolic shaped Au-strip with other D-shaped SPR sensors in the literature.
Particulars of the D-shaped sensor RI range Amplitude sensitivity [1/ Wavelength sensitivity [nm/ Resolution References
[RIU] RIU] RIU]
5
Gold deposited D-shaped PCF for RI Sensor 1.33–1.35 N/A 31,000 3.31 × 10− [34]
D-shaped microstructured optical fiber with hollow core 1.33–1.34 120 2900 N/A [35]
D-shaped PCF sensor with Graphene-Gold deposited 1.33–1.39 1139 4391 N/A [20]
platform
D-shaped SPR for near IR 1.33–1.34 N/A 5200 1.92 × 10− 5 [36]
Graphene-Based Conducting Metal Oxide Coated D- 1.330–1.345 5700 1.754 × 10− 5 [16]
Shaped SPR
Quasi-D-shaped plasmonic RI sensor 1.33–1.42 1236 3877 8.1 × 10− 6 and 2:58 × [37]
10− 5
Graphene-Based D-Shaped PCF Biosensor N/A 216 3700 4.6 × 10− 5 and 2.7 × [38]
10− 5
Parabolic strip-based D-shaped sensor with large 1.31–1.41 115.85 44,000 2.27 × 10− 6 This work
microfluidic channel

which is the highest reported one. Also, the resolution of the proposed Declaration of Competing Interest
sensor is found to be 2.27 × 10− 6, which is the lowest one. However, this
high wavelength sensitivity and lower resolution are achieved with the None.
expense of lower amplitude sensitivity of the system.
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