Designing a Biosensor Using a Photonic Quasi-Crystal Fiber

Abstract

Using finite-element method, we propose a photonic quasi-crystal fiber-based refractive index biosensor (PQF-RIBS), which works based on the surface plasmon polariton. We determine the loss spectra for two different variations of the refractive index of analyte, na. From the detailed numerical analysis, we find that the PQF-RIBS exhibits a maximum refractive index sensitivity of 6000 nm/RIU and a resolution of 1.6 × 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-6</sup> RIU when na is increased from 1.45 to 1.46. Besides, this sensor does exhibit the negative refractive index sensitivity of -4000 nm/RIU and a resolution of 2.5 × 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-6</sup> RIU for a sensing range from 1.52 to 1.53. Furthermore, we carry out selective filling of liquid in the selective holes of the proposed biosensor for a sensing wavelength range from 900 to 1200 nm. Finally, we also study the influence of the structural parameters, namely, diameter of the core and diameter of the air holes in the cladding over the loss spectra of a fundamental mode for a particular n <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">a</sub> of 1.47.