Numerical Simulation of Surface Plasmon Resonance Optical Fiber Biosensor Enhanced by Using Alloys for Medical Application

Abstract

Tuberculosis is a very dangerous disease. Therefore, early and quick diagnosis of this disease can increase the chances of overcoming it. Studies show that people with tuberculosis have a lower blood plasma refractive index than healthy people. The performance of the fiber optic sensor based on surface plasmon resonance is investigated for the metal/oxide/graphene structure and for cases where the diameter of the fiber optic core is 300, 600, and 940 µm while blood plasma is considered as the sensing medium. The sensor characteristics such as sensitivity, detection accuracy and figure of merit are simulated for each structure using the theory of matrix method in Wolfram Mathematica software. The simulation results show that the aluminum/lutetium oxide/graphene structure has the highest quality factor when the core diameter of the optical fiber is 940 µm. In continuation of this research, the effects of using alloys with different mixture proportions to improve the quality are investigated. According to results, the structure of aluminum/copper alloy (with a ratio of 30/70)–lutetium oxide graphene is the best choice for improving the quality of the sensor.