Surface plasmon resonance temperature sensor based on photonic crystal fibers randomly filled with silver nanowires.

We propose a temperature sensor design based on surface plasmon resonances (SPRs) supported by filling the holes of a six-hole photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with a silver nanowire. A liquid mixture (ethanol and chloroform) with a large thermo-optic coefficient is filled into the PCF holes as sensing medium. The filled silver nanowires can support resonance peaks and the peak will shift when temperature variations induce changes in the refractive indices of the mixture. By measuring the peak shift, the temperature change can be detected. The resonance peak is extremely sensitive to temperature because the refractive index of the filled mixture is close to that of the PCF material. Our numerical results indicate that a temperature sensitivity as high as 4 nm/K can be achieved and that the most sensitive range of the sensor can be tuned by changing the volume ratios of ethanol and chloroform. Moreover, the maximal sensitivity is relatively stable with random filled nanowires, which will be very convenient for the sensor fabrication.