Performance Evaluation of a Bilayer SPR-Based Fiber Optic RI Sensor With TiO2 Using FDTD Solutions

We proposed a new bilayer surface plasmon resonance-based fiber-optic refractive index sensor with silver and an over-layer of TiO2. We numerically investigated the optimal thickness of TiO2 over-layer in the proposed sensor and compared its performance to that based on typical bimetallic layers of silver-and-gold in the aqueous media using finite-difference time domain approach. We show that the use of TiO2 over-layer greatly improves the sensor performance in terms of sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio compared to that with gold as the over-layer. Not only does the TiO2 over-layer offer a cost-effective alternative to gold for overcoming the oxidation problem, but also it allows resonance wavelength-tunability.