The selection of a suitable plasmonic material is crucial for achieving high-performance photonic crystal fiber-based surface plasmon resonance (PCF-SPR) sensors. However, most numerical investigations have been limited to PCF-SPR sensors with conventional circularly coated plasmonic metals due to their availability and rigid properties. In this work, a single-core arc-shaped PCF is designed and studied with sensing ingredients coated outside the fiber. The simulation and numerical analyses are performed using the full-vector finite element method to examine the effects of using gold as an active metal and also the deposition of TaO on gold. The results show that the arc-shaped sensor with gold film can obtain the maximum wavelength interrogation sensitivity (WIS) of 9500 nm/RIU within the refractive index (RI) range of 1.25–1.39 while the maximum amplitude interrogation sensitivity (AIS) reaches 579.26 RIU at 1.39 and resolution is 1.05 × 10. However, depositing TaO on the gold gives an improved maximum WIS and AIS of 22,000 nm/RIU and 1209.21 RIU, respectively. With the coating of TaO, the resolution improves to 4.55 × 10, making the proposed sensor design undoubtedly effective in detecting food chemicals such as butyl acetate and hydrocarbons along with different bio-analyte samples with a wide range of RI.

中文翻译：

---

基于表面等离子体共振的弧形单芯光子晶体光纤传感器设计与分析

选择合适的等离子体材料对于实现基于光子晶体光纤的高性能表面等离子体共振（PCF-SPR）传感器至关重要。然而，由于其可用性和刚性，大多数数值研究仅限于具有传统圆形涂层等离子体金属的 PCF-SPR 传感器。在这项工作中，设计和研究了一种单芯弧形PCF，光纤外涂有传感成分。使用全矢量有限元方法进行模拟和数值分析，以检查使用金作为活性金属以及 TaO 在金上沉积的效果。结果表明，金膜弧形传感器在折射率（RI）1.25~1.39范围内获得最大波长询问灵敏度（WIS）为9500 nm/RIU，最大振幅询问灵敏度（AIS）达到579.26 RIU 为 1.39，分辨率为 1.05 × 10。然而，在金上沉积 TaO 可以将最大 WIS 和 AIS 分别提高到 22,000 nm/RIU 和 1209.21 RIU。通过TaO涂层，分辨率提高到4.55×10，使得所提出的传感器设计无疑能够有效地检测食品化学品，例如乙酸丁酯和碳氢化合物以及具有宽范围RI的不同生物分析物样品。