2019 International Conference on Computer Communication and Informatics (ICCCI -2019), Jan.

23-25, 2019,
Coimbatore, INDIA

Performance Analysis Of Circular Lattice PCF

Biosensor Using Surface Plasmon Resonance
V. Fouthika
Department of Electronics Engineering
Pondicherry University,
Pondicherry,India
veera.fouthika@gmail.com
P. Samundiswary
Department of Electronics Engineering
Pondicherry University,
Pondicherry,India
samundiswary_pdy@yahoo.com
M. Sivasindhu
Department of Electronics Engineering
Pondicherry University,
Pondicherry,India
sakthi.sindhu28@gmail.com

Abstract— In this paper, a single layer PCF biosensor using SPR is provides the sensitivity to 2000 nm/RIU. Recently,
designed for detecting unknown analytes with high sensitivity. The evanescent sensing concept article for SPR sensor was
outside of PCF is coated with chemically stable material gold of proposed [4] with 2200 nm/RIU. A square array PCF sensor
thickness 30nm, which is the active plasmonic material. The air was presented [12] with 7250 nm/RIU using single
holes are placed in a position such that more evanescent fields are
produced. A Perfectly Match Layer (PML) is applied to the
plasmonic material.
outermost layer of biosensor for analyzing the sensor performance In this work, we designed a circular lattice PCF biosensor
such as losses and sensitivity. The proposed design gives the using SPR has been proposed and investigated by using
wavelength sensitivity of 14102nm/RIU (Refractive Index Unit) Finite Element Method(FEM), which detects the refractive
with analyte changing from 1.40-1.43 and resolution as 6.681×10−5 index of the liquid analyte. PCF is coated with very thin
RIU. The simulation of this model is done by using COMSOL gold layer. The raised sensor design is easy to fabricate and
MULTIPHYSICS 5.2a. results offers the wavelength sensitivity of 14102 nm/RIU
with analyte varying from 1.40-1.43 and resolution as
Keywords—Biosensor, Photonic Crystals, Surface Plasmon 6.681× 10−5 RIU. The simulation is carried out by using
Resonance (SPR), Evanescent field, Sensitivity
COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS 5.2a. Through these analyses
we observed that the proposed model gives improved
I. INTRODUCTION performance than other models. The performance of various
Recently, Photonic crystals fibers have attracted many PCF based SPR biosensor is presented in table.
researchers because of their distinctive capabilities, larger
application areas. Generally, SPR sensors are used in
biological sample detection such as glucose monitoring, PCF SPR Maximum Wavelength Sensor resolution Peak loss
sensor amplitude sensitivity (nm/ (wavelength inte.) (dB/cm)
disease detection, antibody-antigen interaction, bio-imaging
sensitivity RIU) (RIU)
and so on. In SPR sensors the selection of plasmonic
Ref. (RIU−1)
material is important. Mostly, the plasmonic materials such
as copper, silver, graphene, gold, aluminium are used as [5] – 1198 – –
active material in SPR sensor. In this paper, gold serves as [4] 266 2200 3.75 × 10−5 160
the active plasmonic material because it does not oxidize [6] 47.77 3700 – –
easily and it shows large resonance peaks to improve [12] – 2400 – –
sensing performance of the biosensor. The working of this [7] 72.47 2520 3.97 × 10−5 60
sensor is mainly based on evanescent field and hence the [8] – 3200 – –
[9] – 7500 1.3 × 10−5 –
proposed biosensor structure is designed to produce more
[13] 318 9000 1.11 × 10−5 700.05
evanescent fields.
Proposed – 14102 6.681 × 10−5 112.08

II. RELATED WORK

Different design structures of SPR-based PCF sensors have
been investigated recently. The researchers have been tried
hard to design structures that provides maximum sensitivity
with increase in sensor performance. In Gao et al. [1], the
proposed SPR sensor which contains gold and titanium
dioxide coated air holes. Selectively metal-coated air holes
filled with analytes were proposed by Yu et al. [2]. The air
holes coated with graphene–Ag bimetallic layer and analyte
filled in that air holes was reported by Yang et al. [3]. The
silica channel was coated by 40 nm thick gold layer with
sensitivity 1000 nm/RIU reported by Rifat et al. Polymer
PCF coated structure was proposed by Dash and Jha and it
TABLE 1. Comparison table of performance of various PCF based SPR
biosensors
III. EXISTING DESIGN
The existing PCF design structure is displayed in fig.1. In
this model, smaller air holes of first and second rings are of
same radius are represented by r1, r2 respectively. The radius
of center air hole is rc and dg is gold layer thickness. The
separations between the air openings are spoken to as p. The
thickness of analyte layer is varied from 0.5 μm to 1.5 μm
Fused silica is utilized as a foundation material for this
design. The refractive index of this material will be
calculated using the equation [15],

978-1-5386-8260-9/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE

 2019 International Conference on Computer Communication and Informatics (ICCCI -2019), Jan. 23-25, 2019,
Coimbatore, INDIA
In proposed design number of air holes, size and position of
2
n (λ) = 1 + B1λ 2
+ B2 λ 2
+ B3 λ2 air holes are choosen in such a way to provide high
sensitivity. Here, the thickness of gold layer reduced as
2 2 2
λ − C1 λ − C2 λ − C3 (1) tAu = 30nm. The air hole sizes are r1=0.7 μm, r2=0.6 μm, and
r3=0.4 μm. The analyte channel thickness is tanal=0.5 μm and
Where λ denotes wavelength and n denotes the fused silica represents analyte RI. The fabrication of raised design can
refractive index. The values of constants are mentioned in be done through stack and draw method. The nanolayer
[15]. coating of gold is deposited by high chemical vapour
deposition (CVD) which offers minimal surface roughness
with uniform coating and high efficiency. The simulation is
carried out by COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS 5.2a software.

V. SIMULATION RESULTS

Generally, these sensors works based on generation of

Fig. 1. Design of the existing PCF biosensor with rc = r2 = 0.2 μm, r1 = 0.4
μm, p = 2 μm and dg = 35 nm[13].
Here, we kept the optimum gold layer thickness as dg =
35nm. The Drude-Lorenz model is used to find gold
material’s dielectric constant and the following equation
distinguished this model [15],
evanescent field. Here, this evanescent field hits the gold
layer which excites the free electrons. If, the frequency of
both the free electrons and incident photon are matched,
then it starts to resonate under the condition termed as phase
matching or resonance condition. A loss appears with sharp
peak at this condition which is highly sensitive to a layer
next to the metal layer.
A. EXISTING RESULTS

ϵ ωD 2 ∆ϵ. ΩL2
Au = ϵ∝ − −
ω(ω + jγD) (ω – Ω 2 ) + jΓL ω
2
(2)

Where ϵAu denotes the permittivity of material gold, ϵα is

high frequency permittivity of material gold and its value is
considered as 5.9673. ω, ωD, γD denotes angular frequency,
plasma frequency, the damping frequency respectively. Its
values are found in [15].

IV. PROPOSED DESIGN

Fig. 3. (a) core guided mode of existing design (b) Surface plasmon
The proposed design of PCF biosensor is displayed in fig.2. polaritons mode of existing design(c) loss peak of core guided mode,
Fused silica is used as base material for this sensor design. effective index of core mode and SPP mode relations with parameters
na = 1.37 and dg = 35 nm [13].
The RI of this base material and dielectric constant of gold
are calculated by Sellmeier equation and Drude-Lorenz
model same as existing design.

Wavelength(μm)
Fig. 2. Design of the Proposed PCF biosensor with r1 = 0.7 μm, r2 = 0.6μm, Fig. 4. (a) loss peak variation for various gold layer thickness for
r3 = 0.4μm and tAu =30nm. parameters: p = 2 μm, rc = r2 = 0.2 μm, r1 = 0.4 μm. [13]
 2019 International Conference on Computer Communication and Informatics (ICCCI -2019), Jan. 23-25, 2019,
Coimbatore, INDIA

Fig. 3 displays the confinement loss spectrum of core mode,
the effective RI of core guided mode and SPP mode for the
existing design. Here, the sharp loss peak occurs at
wavelength of 0.71μm. At this wavelength greatest vitality
exchanges from core to SPP mode. Here, confinement loss
is determined by using the equation [15],
effective index of both modes are same. The analyte RI
variation can be found by measuring wavelength peak shifts.
Here, the wavelength peak shift occurs when RI of analyte
na varied from 1.40 to 1.43 which is displayed in Fig. 7.

α = 8.686 × k0. Im[neff] × 10 4 ⋅dB/cm (3)

Where, k0 = 2π/λ denotes the number of free space, λ

denotes effective wavelength and Im[neff] represents the
imaginary refractive index value. By varying the gold layer
thickness and analyte RI, the loss depth portrays meaningful
change which is shown in Fig. 4. From the figure, it is
observed that by increasing gold layer thickness, loss depth
varies and it shifts with larger wavelength. The formula [15]
is used to compute sensitivity is given below,

Sλ (nm/RIU) = Δλpeak / Δna (4)

where Δλpeak designates the changes in wavelength crest

movements and Δna assign the distinction of analyte RI. The Fig. 6. The relation of core guided and Surface plasmon polariton mode
resolution of sensor is determined by the equation, radiation with parameters na=1.40, with radius of air holes r1 = 0.7 μm,
r2 = 0.6 μm, r3 = 0.4μm, na = 1.40 and tAu = 30nm.
R(RIU) = Δna ∗ Δλmin/ Δλpeak (5)

By using, wavelength interrogation method existing design

provides the wavelength sensitivity of 9000 nm/RIU and
resolution of 1.11×10-5.
B. PROPOSED RESULTS
The proposed sensor underpins the core guided mode and
some other higher modes. Here, the simulation is carried for
fundamental core mode. In this design, the sensor is
designed in such a way to yield more evanescent field and
birefringence. The asymmetric nature of proposed sensor
shows birefringence and it induces the distinction in
effective index value of x-polarization and y-polarization of
core mode. In, Fig. 5 (a) and (b) electric field strength in
core guide mode and surface plasmon polariton mode is
displayed. Fig. 7. For various analyte refractive index loss peak shifts with increasing
wavelength with parameters: r1 = 0.7 μm, r2 = 0.6 μm, r3 = 0.4μm, and tAu =
30nm.

Fig. 5. (a) and (b) represents electric field strength of core guided and
surface plasmon polaritons mode with radius of air holes r1 = 0.7 μm, r2 =
0.6 μm, r3 = 0.4μm, na = 1.40 and tAu = 30nm.

Fig. 6. Shows the confinement loss and real RI index of core

and SPP mode. Here, the resonance condition take place at Fig. 8. Loss peak of proposed sensor for different radius of air holes, r3 with
the wavelength of 902nm. At this resonant wavelength real parameters r1 = 0.7 μm, r2 = 0.6 μm, r3 = 0.4μm, na = 1.40 and tAu = 30nm.
 2019 International Conference on Computer Communication and Informatics (ICCCI -2019), Jan. 23-25, 2019,
Coimbatore, INDIA
Here, the wavelength peak shifts from 902nm to 1356nm.
Fig. 8. Demonstrates the confinement loss spectra of
proposed sensor for different radius of r3 ranging from 0.36
μm to 0.42 μm. The loss peak increases with decreasing the
radius of r3. The wavelength peak shifts from 902nm to
911nm.
Fig. 9. Resonant wavelength variation for different analyte Refractive index
na with parameters r1 = 0.7 μm, r2 = 0.6 μm, r3 = 0.4μm, and tAu = 30nm.
Fig. 9. Shows the high linearity which provides the ability
for accurate detection analyte. Sensitivity and resolution is
calculated using same equation as in the existing design[13].
The proposed model provides the wavelength sensitivity of
14102 nm/RIU and sensor resolution as 6.681× 10−5 RIU.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a solitary layer PCF based SPR sensor is
designed to detect the unknown analytes. A Perfectly
Matched Layer(PML) secured by scattering boundary to
evaluate the sensor execution. The parameters are tuned to
give maximum sensitivity. The simulation results provides
the wavelength sensitivity of 14102nm/RIU with RI of
analyte varying from 1.40-1.43 and resolution as 6.681×10-5
RIU. Thus, the proposed biosensor provides improved
sensing performance than the existing biosensor design. The
proposed sensor is used in various fields such as biological,
environmental and biochemical sensing applications.
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