Monochromatic excitation of surface plasmon resonance in an optical-fibre refractive-index sensor

• Published in: Sensors and actuators. A. Physical. Vol. 54; no. 1; pp. 589 - 593
• Main Authors: Ronot-Trioli, C, Trouillet, A, Veillas, C, Gagnaire, H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01-06-1996
• Subjects: Optical fibres; Refractive-index sensors; Surface plasmon resonance; Refractive-index sensors; Optical fibres; Surface plasmon resonance
• ISSN: 0924-4247; 1873-3069
• DOI: 10.1016/S0924-4247(97)80020-9

A simple and inexpensive refractive-index sensor is described. The transducer is a multimode optical fibre which has been metallized with gold on the sensing area. The principle of this sensor is based on surface plasmon excitation at the metal/dielectric interface. This set-up, which uses monochromatic incident light, can work as an optical-fibre refractometer or as a refractive-index-variation optical-fibre sensor, in a range between 1.33 and 1.40. This sensor can detect a refractive-index variation around 10
−4 and can measure a refractive index with an accuracy around 2 × 10
−4.