High-performance plasmonic sensor based on photonic crystal fiber for refractive index and temperature sensing

• This work presents a refractive index and temperature plasmonic sensor based on photonic crystal fiber. • In order to achieve the best performance, a serial of study on the theory and experimental steps is carried out, including simulation calculation, detection system, coating method and post-processing technology. • Experimental results demonstrate that an average sensitivity of 3381 nm/RIU within a linear refractive index ranging from 1.3333 to 1.3860 can be achieved, which is greater than the traditional fiber structure. • In addition, this sensor is helpful to measure temperature change and the sensitivity could be 2 nm/°C. • This study presents a lot of effective methods for preparing PCF sensor, which has enlightening significance to design optical device. In this paper, a refractive index and temperature plasmonic sensor based on photonic crystal fiber is proposed. In order to achieve the best performance, a serial of study on the theory and experimental steps is carried out, including simulation calculation, detection system, coating method and chemical etch technology. Experimental results demonstrate that a high average sensitivity of 3381 nm/RIU within a linear refractive index ranging from 1.3333 to 1.3860 can be achieved, which is greater than the traditional fiber structure. In addition, this sensor is helpful to measure temperature change and the sensitivity could be 2 nm/°C. Due to its easy and controllable fabrication, the proposed sensor has great application prospects in the field of optical device.