Results in Optics 12 (2023) 100460

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Results in Optics
journal homepage: www.sciencedirect.com/journal/results-in-optics

Au-strip structure dependent performance investigation of D-shaped SPR

sensors for biosensing applications
Elora Nahid a, b, *, Md Jahirul Islam a, b, Md Rejvi Kaysir a, b, Sheikh Shahriar Hossain a, c,
Mohammad Shaifur Rahman b
a
Photonics Research Group, EEE, KUET, Bangladesh
b
Department of EEE, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, Khulna 9203, Bangladesh
c
Institute of Information and Communication Technology (IICT), KUET, Khulna 9203, Bangladesh

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

Keywords: Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR)-based sensing technologies show great promise in diverse applications (e.g.
SPR biosensing) as one of the most innovative and exciting label-free sensing techniques in the last few years. In
D shape sensor general, SPR-based sensors combine metal and dielectric interfaces, where the oscillation of metal’s free elec­
Multi-arc Au strip
trons occurs by the incident incoming photons. Thus, the SPR signal strength depends on the metal’s optical
Wavelength sensitivity
properties as well as the surrounding dielectric medium. This work thoroughly investigates the performance of a
Amplitude sensitivity
Resolution single mode D-shape SPR-based refractive index (RI) sensor with its gold (Au) strip topology to improve the
detection sensitivity. Seven distinct Au strip designs: single-arc, inverted single-arc, multi-arc, inverted multi-arc,
half-circle, coil, and sinusoidal wave are introduced to explore sensor performances, which are investigated
numerically using Comsol Multiphysics. Systematic investigations are carried out for all seven proposed designs
and relative comparisons are made in terms of sensitivity (wavelength and amplitude), resolution, and figure of
merit (FoM). Coil and sinusoidal wave-shaped designs show excellent performance among all seven designs with
a wide range of analytes’ RI (i.e. 1.31 to 1.39). The maximum wavelength and amplitude sensitivities are found
to be 48000 nm/RIU and 18.55 RIU− 1 respectively, with a wavelength resolution of 2.08 × 10-6 RIU and a
consequent FoM of 141.18 RIU− 1 for the sinusoidal wave-shaped Au-strip design. Alternatively, the coil-shaped
design shows the maximum wavelength and amplitude sensitivities of 45000 nm/RIU and 32.17 RIU− 1
respectively, with a wavelength resolution of 2.22 × 10-6 RIU and a FoM of 85.71 RIU− 1. As a wide range of
analyte’s RI can be detected by the proposed sinusoidal wave and coil Au-strip-based D-shaped sensors with
improved sensitivity, these designs could be effectively used for the detection of different bio-analytes.

1. Introduction at the metal-dielectric contact, SPR occurs as the result of the oscillations
of the free electrons of the metal at their interfaces (Ge et al., 2016). This
Surface plasmon resonance (SPR), which has a wide range of sensing SPR phenomenon is quite sensitive to dielectric materials’ refractive
applications, has emerged as one of the most attractive sensing ap­ index (RI) which means it can successfully detect extremely small var­
proaches in recent years. SPR is applicable in a variety of fields, not just iations in the sensing element’s RI (Xie, 2017). With the use of SPR-
those involving the study of biological, chemical, physical, and bimo­ based technology, the sensing elements can be determined in real-time
lecular interactions (Homola et al., 1999). SPR allows for the precise and with precise accuracy (Nguyen et al., 2015). It’s important to note
immediate determination of DNA, proteins, viruses, sugars, poisons, that the SPR-based sensor is often chosen over dye-based sensors for
pathological samples, etc. Other uses include organic chemical sensing, certain applications. Generally, SPR-based sensors recommend label-
environmental monitoring, homeland security, drug detection, free detection of biomolecular interactions, which simplifies experi­
manufacturing food quality management, pH monitoring, temperature mental procedures and eliminate the potential for interference or arti­
sensing, and many others (Chen and Ming, 2012). When light is incident facts caused by the labeling process. Thus, an SPR-based sensor is highly

* Corresponding author at: Photonics Research Group, EEE, KUET, Bangladesh.

E-mail addresses: [email protected] (E. Nahid), [email protected] (M.J. Islam), [email protected] (M.R. Kaysir), [email protected]
(M.S. Rahman).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rio.2023.100460
Received 9 March 2023; Received in revised form 26 May 2023; Accepted 26 June 2023
Available online 1 July 2023
2666-9501/© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
nc-nd/4.0/).
E. Nahid et al. Results in Optics 12 (2023) 100460

sensitive and can detect changes in RI or mass at the surface of a metal shape of the metal in SPR plays a vital role to maximize the SPR’s per­
film on a sub-nanometer scale. These properties make them ideal for formance, and therefore, extended investigations are needed to further
detecting small molecules and interactions that may not be detectable by improve the design sensitivity and output performance.
dye-based sensors. As discussed, D-shaped sensors incorporating SPR phenomena stand
There are different strategies or techniques to incorporate SPR strongly as a candidate for highly sensitive biosensors. The design for
technology for a wide range of sensing applications. Among them, the improving sensitivity, straightforward fabrication techniques, and large
combination of optical fiber technology and the SPR technique has led to microfluidic channels accelerate the researchers toward further in­
significant progress in detecting a wide range of physical, chemical, and vestigations. In this work, we aim to investigate how the size, shape, and
biochemical characteristics (Gupta and Verma, 2009); (Jing et al., arrangement of the metal (e.g. gold) affect the performance of a D-
2022). There are numerous Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCF) structured- shaped large microfluidic-based SPR sensor. For that, seven distinct Au
based SPR sensors available, including those with microstructured strip designs: single-arc, inverted single-arc, multi-arc, inverted multi-
cores, multi-cores, single-cores, complex geometries, grating and 2D arc, half-circle, coil, and sinusoidal wave are introduced to explore
heterostructure assisted geometry, U-shapes, and D-shapes (Homola sensor performances. Based on our investigation, we summarized the
et al., 1999); (Hossain et al., 2022) – (Iqbal et al., 2020). Recently, design parameters for making the D-shaped SPR sensor more sensitive.
nanostructured nanowire-based plasmonic sensors supporting either The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 provides the
local or propagating surface plasmon properties (i.e. LSPR or PSPR) have system modelling procedures; Section 3 explicitly describes the results
shown improved sensing performances (Xiao et al., 2022) (Santos et al., and also illustrates the numerical findings of the proposed systems. In
2019). Researchers are also particularly interested in simple structure- addition, a comparison of the performance indicating parameters of our
based plasmonic sensors which particularly include planar waveguides proposed sensor designs is also made with similar designs published in
(Liu et al., 2011); (Liu et al., Oct. 2012), U- (Liu et al., 2021); (Liu et al., the literature. The fabrication possibilities with current technologies in
2019) and D-shaped (Hossain et al., 2021)– (Wang et al., 2016) struc­ the literature are also presented. Finally, Section 4 provides a summary
tures because of their robustness, larger interaction area, straightfor­ of the findings.
ward design, and simpler fabrication method.
In general, the sensitivity of an SPR sensor is determined by the 2. System modelling
plasmon resonance frequency at which the plasmons oscillate near the
metal surface. Plasmon-active materials for SPR sensors are frequently The graphical illustration of the SPR sensor integrated with a D-
made of gold, silver, and aluminum. The plasma frequencies in these shaped fiber with a large microfluidic channel is presented in Fig. 1(a). It
materials are in the visible spectrum, which makes them suitable for contains the Au-strip shapes along with a germanium-doped silica (GeSi)
detection using optical techniques. From these materials, gold is often core and a one-sided D-shaped analyte channel. To differentiate the core
picked up due to its chemical stability and compatibility with bio­ and cladding in terms of refractive indices, SiO2 is used in the sur­
molecules (Sibuyi et al., 2021). In addition, gold nanoparticles (NPs) can roundings of the core to maintain the law of total internal reflection
bind to biomolecules and can initiate strong SPR signals. Moreover, (TIR) of the designed fiber.
tuning of resonance frequencies is possible by changing the gold NPs’s The design parameters (i.e. the core and cladding dimensions,
size, shape, and surface chemistry. refractive index) are chosen in such a way that the fiber can act as a
In the case of D-shaped SPR sensors, many investigations have been single-mode fiber. Consequently, the fiber core diameter is considered as
carried out to boost the sensitivity, resolution, and FoM. In a research 9 μm, and it is enclosed with fused silica cladding of diameter 125 μm.
conducted by Patnaik et al., a maximum sensitivity of 5700 nm/RIU and Seven different Au-strip shapes–single-arc, inverted single-arc, multi-
a maximum resolution of 1.75410-5 RIU have been reported for a arc, inverted multi-arc, coil, half circle, and sinusoidal wave shapes are
graphene-based metal oxide assisted sensor (Patnaik et al., 2015). In chosen for the sensitivity analysis of the D-shape SPR sensor [see Fig. 2].
another experiment by Qazi et al., an aluminum oxide polishing sheet A complete realization of the proposed Au-strip shape-dependent SPR
was utilized with D-shaped polarization-maintaining fiber and experi­ sensor is presented in Fig. 1, where the Au-strip is enlarged for a clear
mentally demonstrated the strain and temperature sensing process (Qazi view. Here, the Au-strip is positioned with a distance, D = 1.15 μm from
et al., 2016). Chen et al. in 2018, proposed a novel D shape PCF struc­ the core for all the seven design attributes. The thickness (t) and width
ture–based SPR sensor and found the maximum wavelength sensitivity (w) of the Au-strip are designed to be 0.035 μm and 9 μm, respectively.
of 11055 nm/RIU for the gold (Au) coated open–ring channel between In this analysis, we are looking for the SPR phenomenon to investigate
the RI of 1.20 to 1.29 (An et al., 2019). A D-shaped large microfluidic the performance of the D-shaped sensor that occurs at a metal film-
channel single-mode fiber sensor later in 2019 that makes use of a single dielectric interface, rather than in a nanoparticle. The considered D-
striped gold layer is proposed in Ref. (Pathak et al., 2019) and reported a shaped sensor with the above structural parameters aids single-mode
very high sensitivity between 7000 and 11000 nm/RIU. In another operation. Comsol Multiphysics® has been used to numerically simu­
study, a single flat single indium tin oxide (ITO) strip shows a maximum late the performance parameters. The electromagnetic wave frequency
wavelength sensitivity of 15000 nm/RIU, according to Chao Liu et al. in domain (emw) module of Comsol Multiphysics has been used for the
a D-shape PCF SPR sensor (Liu, 2020). Later, C. Li et al. investigated a analysis.
quasi-crystal fiber-based D-shaped sensor, and maximum sensitivity up It is noted that Comsol Multiphysics is a solver and simulation soft­
to 34000 nm/RIU was found in the near-infrared band (Li et al., 2019). ware based on the finite element method (FEM) which is vastly used for
In our previous work, it was observed that the sensitivity of a D- simulations in various fields. Interfacing and coupling partial differen­
shaped SPR sensor can be greatly affected by the physical shape of the tial equations (PDEs) are the main feature of this software, which helps a
metal (in this case, Au) (Hossain et al., 2021). In that study, Au-strip conventional physics-based user to have particular solutions in the field
structures with flat, parabolic, and combined shapes were taken into of electrical, mechanical, fluid, acoustic, and chemistry, including en­
consideration to explore the sensitivity. It was found that the overall gineering, physics, and biosensing.
detection sensitivity could be significantly improved by simply changing It is important to choose a mesh size that is fine enough to accurately
the shape of the Au-strip while maintaining other design parameters of capture the details of the sensor geometry and the plasmonic in­
the sensor. The maximum wavelength sensitivity for a parabolic single teractions between the metal film and the surrounding environment,
Au strip was found to be 42000 nm/RIU. In a similar study by Muntaz et while also being computationally accurate. The optimal mesh size can be
al., while using a U-shaped MXene (Ti3C3Tx) strip along with a D-shape determined through a combination of trial and error and careful
PCF-based SPR sensor a maximum wavelength sensitivity of 47260 nm/ consideration of the specific requirements and limitations of the simu­
RIU was achieved (Mumtaz, Dec. 2022). Thus, it is evident that the lation. After careful consideration of computational resources and

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Fig. 1. (a) 3D model of the proposed D-shaped sensor. Here, the Ge doped core surrounded by silica with a large microfluidic channel for the bio-specimens supports
single mode, (b) Enlarged view of the wave shape strip. In this and all the following figures, w and t are the width and thickness of the Au-strip, respectively, and D
denotes the gap of the sinusoidal wave shape strip from the core.

simulation times, we have chosen an extra fine triangular mesh in the adjacent analyte RIs change.
Comsol environment. Determining the sensor’s wavelength resolution is also important for
In this analysis, two modes–the core and surface plasmon polariton sensor design. The sensor wavelength resolution is calculated by (Wang
(SPP) are used to determine the sensor performance. Here, fused silica et al., 2016)
(Si), germanium-doped silica (GeSi), and gold (Au) are used as the
R = Δna × Δλmin /Δλpeak (6)
cladding, core, and metallic strip. The RIs of fused silica and germanium-
doped silica are determined by utilizing the Sellmeier equation (Rafi where, Δλpeak is the maximum resonant wavelength shift results due
et al., 2020) to Δna provided that Δna is change of analyte. Here, Δλmin denotes the
minimum spectral resolution.
B1 λ2 B2 λ 2 B3 λ2
n2 (λ) = 1 + 2
+ 2 + 2 (1) Another important performance parameter of the sensor is the figure
λ − C1 λ − C2 λ − C3
of merit (FoM) which provides information on spectral width and is
where λ indicates the wavelength in μm, n presents the wavelength- defined by (Falah et al., 2021)
based refractive index of fused silica and germanium-doped silica. The
Sλ
parameters for the Sellmeier constants for Ge and Si are obtained from FoM = (7)
FWHM
Ref. (Hasan et al., 2017). Using the Drude-Lorentz model, the dielectric
function of the gold strip is determined (Rafi et al., 2020). Where Sλ is the wavelength sensitivity defined by Eq. (4) and FWHM
represents the full-width at half-maximum of the resonance loss spectra.
ωp 2 Δε Ω2L
εAu = 5.9675 − − 2 (2)
ω(ω + iγD ) ω − Ω2L + iΓL ω 3. Results and discussion
where, ωp is the plasma frequency and γ D is the damping coefficient.
ΩL and ΓL are the oscillator strength and spectral width, respectively As discussed in the preceding section, two modes namely, surface
(Vial et al., 2005). The calculation of the confinement loss (LC ) in dB/m plasmon polariton (SPP) and core mode with TM polarization of incident
is done by using the relation (Chiu et al., 2007) light are considered for the analysis. Fig. 3 shows a typical dispersion
( ) relation for a sinusoidal wave-shape strip for an analyte refractive index
LC = 8.686 × K0 × Im neff , (3) of 1.31, with the other parameters D = 1.15, t = 0.035 μm, and w = 9 μm.
It is evident that light leaks from the core as the wavelength increases
where K0 = (2π/λ); is the free-space wave vector and Im (neff) is the
and intersects with SPP mode at a time. Then the resonance occurs and
imaginary portion of the effective refractive index, and λ is the wave­
consequently results in the maximum loss. It is also noted that there exist
length of the incident light. Sensitivity is another essential factor to
two peaks in the dispersion curves when the strip structure has multiple
assess the performance of the suggested system. Wavelength and
arcs structure. The resonant wavelength at the intersection of the
amplitude are the two different categories of sensitivity. The change in
dispersion curves for the second loss peak is not necessarily the same as
resonance wavelength peak (Δλpeak ) per unit change in refractive index
the resonant wavelength of the SPR sensor, as they depend on different
of the analyte is known as wavelength sensitivity (Sλ ) and is defined
parameters. The second loss peak in the dispersion curve is typically
mathematically as (Akowuah et al., 2012)
broader than the SPR peak and can be influenced by factors such as
Δλpeak scattering, absorption, and higher order plasmon modes. Therefore, the
Sλ = (4)
Δna resonant wavelengths at these peaks may not be consistent with each
other, and can vary slightly. Generally, the strip structure with multiple
Another crucial parameter for the performance analysis is the
arcs produces multiple resonant modes that can interact with the inci­
amplitude sensitivity SA , which is defined as (Rifat et al., 2016)
dent light and the surrounding medium in complex ways. This results in
( ) 1 ∂LC (λ, na ) the emergence of two distinct peaks in the dispersion curves. On the
SA RIU − 1 = − (5)
LC (λ, na ) ∂na other hand, for single-arc systems only a single peak in the dispersion
curve is observed. For all the succeeding analysis, if not otherwise
Here, LC (λ, na ) is the confinement loss (CL) when the refractive index
indicated, the 2nd peak for multi-arc are considered for the sensitivity
of the analyte is na . ∂LC (λ, na ) represents the change in LC when two
analysis. In addition, the FoM defined by Eq. (7) is also measured for

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Fig. 2. 2D model of the proposed D-shaped sensor with different Au strip structures. (a) Coil strip, (b) Multi-arc strip, (c) Half circle strip, (d) Single-arc strip (e)
Inverted single-arc strip (f) Inverted multi-arc strip.

both peaks, where available. For the single-arc (both the normal arc and inverted) systems, the
For the seven different Au-striped SPR-based sensors, the analyte RI range is considered between 1.31 and 1.37 and the confine­
wavelength-dependent CL spectra for different analytes’ RI are shown in ment loss spectra are shown in Fig. 4. At this time, the maximum
Figs. 4–6. In all the simulations, a fixed range of RI values between 1.31 wavelength sensitivity, maximum amplitude sensitivity, maximum
and 1.42 is commonly used. This range is typically associated with the RI wavelength resolution, maximum amplitude resolution, and FoM of
values of biomolecules, which are commonly detected by using SPR single-arc system are found as 2000 nm/RIU, − 2.47 RIU− 1, 5 × 10-5 RIU,
sensors. However, in some cases, the RI of the analyte can be dependent 9.44 × 10-9 RIU, and 20 RIU− 1, respectively. For the inverted-arc system
on the wavelength of the incident light. This is particularly true for as shown in Fig. 4(b), these values are determined as 2500 nm/RIU,
materials that exhibit dispersion, which is the variation in RI concerning − 4.27 RIU− 1, 4 × 10-5 RIU, 8.59 × 10-9 RIU, and 25 RIU− 1, respectively.
wavelength. Water and ethanol are examples of materials that exhibit When considering multi-arc systems, both the normal multi-arc and
dispersion. In such cases, it is essential to incorporate the wavelength- inverted multi-arc shaped au-strip, surprisingly, provide a double peak
dependent RI of the analyte in the simulation to accurately model the (Meng et al., 2021) in the dispersion spectra with very high sensitivity.
sensor’s response. However, for simplicity of the analysis, we ignored For the normal multi-arc system as shown in Fig. 5(a), the maximum
these changes in the simulation. wavelength sensitivity is found to be 40000 nm/RIU, and the maximum

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Fig. 3. Dispersion curve of sinusoidal wave-shaped Au-strip based SPR sensor. The core and two surface plasmon polariton modes are also shown.

Fig. 4. Confinement loss spectra for (a) Single-arc Au-striped sensor (b) Inverted single-arc Au-striped sensor.

amplitude sensitivity, maximum wavelength resolution, maximum extremely high sensitivity. Table 1 shows the highest wavelength
amplitude resolution, and FoM found at the second peak is found to be sensitivity, which is 48000 nm/RIU. The maximum amplitude sensi­
14.54 RIU− 1, 2.5 × 10-6 RIU, 8.53 × 10-10 RIU, and 102.56 RIU− 1, tivity, maximum wavelength resolution, maximum amplitude resolu­
respectively. Also, for the first peak of multi-arc, the maximum wave­ tion, and FoM are found at the second peak, which are 18.55 RIU− 1,
length sensitivity is 2000 nm/RIU, and the maximum amplitude sensi­ 2.08 × 10-6 RIU, 9.06 × 10-10 RIU, and 141.18 RIU− 1, respectively. The
tivity, maximum wavelength resolution, maximum amplitude maximum wavelength sensitivity is 48000 nm/RIU and to the best of the
resolution, and FoM found are -31.39 RIU− 1, 5 × 10-5 RIU, 1.27 × 10-9 authors’ knowledge is the highest one. Additionally, the first peak of the
RIU, and 33.33 RIU− 1, respectively. sinusoidal wave shape exhibits maximum wavelength sensitivity of
In the case of an inverted multi-arc system [see Fig. 5(b)], the 2000 nm/RIU, maximum amplitude sensitivity of 7.56 RIU− 1, maximum
maximum wavelength sensitivity, maximum amplitude sensitivity, wavelength resolution of 5 × 10-5 RIU, maximum amplitude resolution
maximum wavelength resolution, and maximum amplitude resolution of 1.28 × 10-9, and FoM of 28.57 RIU− 1.
are found as 40000 nm/RIU, 14.49 RIU− 1, 2.5 × 10-6 RIU, and 8.55 × When we considered coil shape Au-strip, the maximum wavelength
10-10 RIU, respectively. For the first peak of the inverted multi-arc, these sensitivity, maximum amplitude sensitivity, maximum wavelength res­
values are 2000 nm/RIU, -11.59 RIU− 1, 5 × 10-5 RIU, and 1.20 × 10-9 olution, maximum amplitude resolution, and FoM are found as 45000
RIU atna = 1.36 which is very similar to multi-arc. nm/RIU, 32.17 RIU− 1, 2.22 × 10-6 RIU, 1.01 × 10-9 RIU, and 85.71
In addition, when a typical sinusoidal wave-shape type Au-strip is RIU− 1, respectively as shown in Fig. 6(b). For the half circle system as is
considered, we also found double peaks in dispersion spectra with shown in Fig. 6 (c), these values are 8000 nm/RIU, -7.29 RIU− 1, 1.25 ×

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Fig. 5. Confinement loss spectra for (a) Multi-arc Au-striped sensor (b) Inverted multi-arc Au-striped sensor.

Fig. 6. Confinement loss spectra for (a) Sinusoidal wave-shape Au-strip sensor, (b) Coil Au-strip sensor, and (c) Half circle Au-strip sensor.

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Table 1
Performance comparison of the proposed seven designs of Au-strip-based D-shaped SPR sensors.
Au-stripe RI Range Max wavelength sensitivity Max wavelength Max amplitude sensitivity Max amplitude FoM
Shape [RIU] (nm/RIU) resolution (RIU) (RIU¡1) resolution (RIU) (RIU¡1)

Single-arc 1.31–1.37 2000 5.00 × 10-5 − 2.47 9.44 × 10-9 20.00

Inverted single- 1.31–1.37 2500 4.00 × 10-5 − 4.27 8.59 × 10-9 25.00
arc
Inverted multi- 1.31–1.37 40,000 2.50 × 10-6 14.49 8.56 × 10-10 94.12
arc
Multi-arc 1.31–1.37 40,000 2.50 × 10-6 14.54 8.53 × 10-10 102.56
Half-circle 1.31–1.39 8000 1.25 × 10-5 − 7.29 1.46 × 10-8 42.11
Coil 1.31–1.39 45,000 2.22 × 10-6 32.17 1.01 × 10-9 85.71
Sinusoidal wave 1.31–1.39 48,000 2.08 × 10-6 18.55 9.06 × 10-10 141.18

10-5 RIU, 1.46 × 10-8 RIU, and 42.11 RIU− 1. It is noted that the FWHM of the desired shapes rather than flat shapes and thereafter wet-chemistry
the second peaks, as seen from the confinement loss spectra, are larger deposition or chemical vapor deposition (CVD) may be used to deposit
compared to the first peaks, it is still advantageous to select the loss peak the thin gold film. In addition, the details of the testing process of such
for SPR sensing applications due to its high sensitivity, large dynamic sensors can be found in Refs. (Gupta and Verma, 2009); (Jing et al.,
range, and low noise. Also, the FoM of the first peaks is comparatively 2022).
smaller than the large peaks. This is realized from the fact that wave­
length sensitivities of the first peaks are smaller and the FoM is measured 4. Conclusion
from the ratio of wavelength sensitivity to FWHM. Typically, a high-
performance sensor can be realized when the sensitivity increases with In this work, the performance of D-shape SPR-based sensors with a
a corresponding decrease in FWHM. larger microfluidic channel has been thoroughly investigated to under­
For all seven designs, the overall performance comparison is stand how the shape of the Au-strip affects the performance. This study
chronically shown in Table 1. From the preceding analysis, it is evident investigates the concept of interaction between the core mode and the
that the maximum wavelength and amplitude sensitivities are found for surface plasmon polariton (SPP) mode. For seven different Au-strip’s
sinusoidal wave-shape and coil-shape systems. In general, the designs shape-based sensors, including single-arc, inverted single-arc, multi-arc,
that use multiple arcs or a coil-shaped metal layer tend to have higher inverted multi-arc, coil-shape, half-circle, and sinusoidal wave-shape
sensitivity and resolution due to the increased electric field intensity at were considered and the effective refractive index and confinement
the metal-dielectric interface. However, these designs are also more loss were calculated using a systematic finite element simulation
complex and expensive to fabricate. The simpler designs, such as the method. In addition, the effects of additional crucial structural elements,
single-arc and inverted single-arc designs have lower sensitivity and such as the size, shape, and arrangement of the metal (i.e. Au) strips, are
resolution; however, facilitate easier and less expensive fabrication. The thoroughly explored for the analyte’s RI range of 1.31 to 1.39. The
choice of design depends on the specific requirements of the application inverted multi-arc, multi-arc, half-circle, coil, and sinusoidal wave-
and the trade-off between sensitivity, resolution, and fabrication shaped Au-strip-based SPR sensors, among the seven designs being
complexity. Finally, a detailed comparison with the existing literature is studied, provide dual maxima in their loss spectra, therefore, wave­
presented in Table 2. length sensitivities were assessed for the dual peaks. In comparison to
In recent years, the fabrication feasibility of D-shaped SPR sensors single-peak sensors, the sensors with dual peaks result in significantly
has been reported to be flexible due to their fabrication tolerance and better RI detection capabilities due to high sensitivity, large dynamic
very high sensitivity. In an Au incorporated D-shaped plasmonic sensor a range, and low noise. Single-arc, inverted single-arc, and the half circle
thin layer of gold is deposited in the polished surface inside the PCF. This structures’ loss spectra contain a single peak and also result in lower
also assists in emptying or refilling the measured analytes without much wavelength sensitivity (i.e. ~ 8000 nm/RIU) and lower FoM (i.e. ~ 43).
difficulty (Singh and Prajapati, 2020). In the proposed designs micro­ On the other hand, multi-arc and sinusoidal wave shape system, con­
fabrication techniques (Hunger et al., 20122012) can be used to create sisting of dual peaks, give rise to high sensitivity, resolution, and FoM.

Table 2
Performance comparison of the proposed D-shaped optical fiber-based RI sensors with other D -shaped sensors published in the literature. [Here, PCF: Photonic Crystal
Fiber].
Particulars of the D-shaped SPR sensors RI range Max wavelength sensitivity Max wavelength Max amplitude sensitivity Ref.
[RIU] (nm/RIU) resolution (RIU) (RIU¡1)

Gold deposited PCF 1.32–1.40 31,000 3.31 × 10-5 N/A* (Wu et al., 2018)
Microstructured optical fiber with hollow 1.33–1.34 2900 N/A* 120 (Luan et al.,
core 2015)
PCF with graphene-gold deposited platform 1.33–1.39 4391 2.28 × 10-5 1139 (An et al., 2019)
Indium Tin oxide deposited for near IR 1.33–1.34 5200 1.92 × 10-5 N/A* (Dash and Jha,
2016)
Graphene-based Indium Tin oxide coated 1.31–1.39 5700 1.75 × 10-5 N/A* (Patnaik et al.,
2015)
Graphene coated Au based plasmonic 1.33–1.42 3877 2.58 × 10-5 1236 (An et al., 2018)
sensor
Parabolic strip with large microfluidic 1.31–1.41 44,000 2.27 × 10-6 115.85 (Hossain et al.,
channel 2021)
-6
Coil strip Au-strip based large microfluidic 1.31–1.39 45,000 2.22 × 10 32.17 This work
channel
-6
Sinusoidal wave Au-strip based large 1.31–1.39 48,000 2.08 × 10 18.55 This work
microfluidic channel

N/A*: Author(s) did not provide the information.

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From the second peak, we found the highest wavelength sensitivity D. Hunger, C. Deutsch, R. J. Barbour, R. J. Warburton, and J. Reichel, “Laser micro-
fabrication of concave, low-roughness features in silica,” AIP Adv., vol. 2, no. 1,
(48000 nm/RIU), amplitude sensitivity (32.17 RIU− 1), and FoM (141.18
2012, 10.1063/1.3679721.
RIU− 1). This study helps researchers and engineers to develop highly Iqbal, T., Noureen, S., Afsheen, S., Khan, M.Y., Ijaz, M., 2020. Rectangular and sinusoidal
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CRediT authorship contribution statement Li, C., Yan, B., Liu, J., 2019. Refractive index sensing characteristics in a D-shaped
photonic quasi-crystal fiber sensor based on surface plasmon resonance. J. Opt. Soc.
Am. A 36 (10), pp. https://doi.org/10.1364/josaa.36.001663.
Elora Nahid: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – original Liu, C., et al., 2020. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) infrared sensor based on D-shape
draft. Md Jahirul Islam: Conceptualization, Supervision. Md Rejvi photonic crystal fibers with ITO coatings. Opt. Commun. vol. 464, no. February,
125496 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optcom.2020.125496.
Kaysir: Conceptualization, Supervision. Sheikh Shahriar Hossain: Liu, J., Chen, B.X., Yang, H.M., 2011. Study on the symmetric structure of surface
Methodology, Software, Visualization. Mohammad Shaifur Rahman: plasmon resonance excited by planar waveguide. Guangdianzi Jiguang/Journal
Supervision, Writing – review & editing. Optoelectron. Laser 22 (12), pp.
Liu, J., Chen, B.X., Yang, H.M., Mamoru, I., Oct. 2012. Symmetric surface plasmon
resonance sensing structure excited by a planar waveguide. Opt. Laser Technol. 44
(7), 2286–2291. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.OPTLASTEC.2012.02.023.
Declaration of Competing Interest Q. Liu et al., “Surface plasmon resonance sensor based on U-shaped photonic quasi-
crystal fiber,” Appl. Opt., vol. 60, no. 6, 2021, 10.1364/ao.419518.
Liu, Q., Yan, B., Liu, J., 2019. U-shaped photonic quasi-crystal fiber sensor with high
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial sensitivity based on surface plasmon resonance. Appl. Phys. Express 12 (5), pp.
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence https://doi.org/10.7567/1882-0786/ab13bc.
Luan, N., Wang, R., Lv, W., Yao, J., 2015. Surface plasmon resonance sensor based on D-
the work reported in this paper.
shaped microstructured optical fiber with hollow core. Opt. Express 23 (7), 8576.
https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.23.008576.
Data availability Meng, X., Li, J., Guo, Y., Li, S., Zhang, S., Liu, Y., Cheng, T., 2021. Analysis of Double
Peak Detection in a D-Shaped Photonic Crystal Fiber Plasmonic Sensor. Plasmonics
16 (3), 761–768.
Data will be made available on request. Mumtaz, F., et al., Dec. 2022. MXene (Ti3C2Tx) coated highly-sensitive D-shaped
photonic crystal fiber based SPR-biosensor. Photonics Nanostruct. - Fundam. Appl.
52, 101090 https://doi.org/10.1016/J.PHOTONICS.2022.101090.
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