Applied Physics A (2022) 128:86

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-021-05220-2

AZO‑coated plasmonic PCF nanosensor for blood constituent

detection in near‑infrared and visible spectrum
Mohammad Rakibul Islam1   · A. N. M. Iftekher1 · Fateha Noor1 · Md Rezaul Hoque Khan1 · Md. Taslim Reza1 ·
Mirza Muntasir Nishat1

Received: 24 August 2021 / Accepted: 19 December 2021

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE part of Springer Nature 2022

Abstract
We propose an elementary circular-shaped plasmonic biosensor based on photonic crystal fiber for multiple blood component
identification in near-infrared and visible spectrum. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper where plasmonic
biosensor is proposed to determine blood components for near-infrared and visible spectrum region using comparative
amplitude sensitivity (AS) as the sensitivity parameter. Here we consider Al-doped ZnO as plasmonic material to attain
improved sensor performance and extensible design. The finite element method is adopted throughout the numerical study.
Observations made using optimum parameters have led to investigations regarding resonance quality, sensitivity, sensor
resolution, sensor length and figure of merit (FOM). Numerical results show that the proposed structure exhibits higher
amplitude sensitivity of 5078.99 ­RIU−1, maximum resolution of 5.13 × ­10–5 and an overall excellent FOM trait of 325 in the
­HEy11 mode. For H ­ Ex11 mode, the corresponding values are 2576.38 R ­ IU−1, 5.71 × ­10–5, 250, respectively. Possible fabrica-
tion technique using stack-and-draw method and tolerance analysis of designed sensor are also examined. Since considerable
attention has not been given yet in blood component detection by using PCF-SPR sensing, this design will pave a whole new
path in the medical biosensing arena.

Keywords  Photonic crystal fiber (PCF) · Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) · Biochemical sensor · Al-doped ZnO (AZO) ·
Wavelength sensitivity (WS) · Amplitude sensitivity (AS)

1 Introduction of liquid, termed as plasma (~ 90% water), and solids that

Early detection of blood diseases is crucial for improving
effective treatment and long-term survival of patients since
these patients need tailored as well as on-demand services to
lead normal, active lives. Blood diseases or blood disorders
are mostly non-communicable, yet causing high death risk
of all age groups throughout the world. Some familiar blood
disorders are anemia, lymphoma, leukemia, hemophilia and
coagulation disorders. These disorders may affect one or
more blood components, and in the worst case, malfunction-
ing of body organs may occur. Hence, detecting blood com-
ponents is vital to take necessary preventive measures against
severe health damages. As we know, blood is a combination
* Mohammad Rakibul Islam
rakibultowhid@yahoo.com
1
Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department, Islamic
University of Technology, Boardbazar, Gazipur 1704,
Bangladesh
contain red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Based
on the complete analysis of these blood components along
with patients’ symptoms, hematologists treat various cancer-
ous and non-cancerous blood disorders. Traditional blood
component detection methods are well accepted, yet are
costly, time-consuming, inappropriate for real-time analysis
and require laboratory environment with trained personnel.
Due to these limitations, biosensing technology has been
emerged as a new pathway to pathological examinations
for not only their compact and miniature design but also for
their faster, more economic and real-time information with
more precise analysis [1–3]. Biosensors are gradually gaining
attention in a broad range of applications such as medicine,
diagnostics, biomolecular analysis, agricultural management
and ecological monitoring [4]. Over the recent years, despite
the popularity of PCF sensors [5–9], surface plasmon reso-
nance (SPR)-based optical biosensors have been served as an
outstanding alternative due to its high selectivity, sensitivity,
precision and accuracy [10]. SPR biosensors can be exploited

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 86   Page 2 of 13
in the prior discovery of benign and malignant diseases.
This sensor uses SPR phenomenon where TM (transversely
magnetic) polarized light passes through a high refractive
index (RI) prism layered by a thin metal film and is totally
reflected from that metal–dielectric interface into a detector.
A channel containing analyte of interest with lower RI is
attached to the other side of the metal layer. The metal–glass
interface behaves like a nearly free electron plasma, namely
surface plasmons. When the incoming light frequency and
the plasma frequency become identical, light is absorbed
and resonance is occurred. Resonant angle is overly delicate
to small changes in analyte RI, and thus, SPR technique is
efficiently used in analyte detection for a number of years.
Initially, prism was used in SPR sensing technology. In
[11], Liedberg has applied SPR technique for the first time to
detect halothane gas and IgG antibodies. Further researches
on imaging of biomolecular interactions [12] and evaluation
of protein’s surface concentration [13] have also been stud-
ied. The key problem of the prism-based biosensors is that
they contain several moving optical and mechanical compo-
nents; therefore, these are heavy and incompatible for large-
scale production and remote sensing applications [14]. To
overcome these limitations, Jorgenson and Yee introduced
optical fiber in [15] for chemical sensing where fiber core
is used instead of prism. Thus, it is small sized and suitable
for expensive and very low-volume samples. Among various
optical fiber-based sensors, photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is of
particular importance due to its compact structure, trouble-
free system integration with advanced signal processing,
easier light emission and so forth [16]. These benefits make
it an excellent candidate in the field of imaging, telecom-
munication, healthcare, environmental applications, phar-
maceutical drug testing and sensing applications [17–20].
PCF is a relatively new category of optical fiber where peri-
odic micro-capillaries are formed as fiber cladding holes in a
background material with different RI. This creates large index
difference between core and cladding, which in turn gives it
efficient control over evanescent field. Until now, a vast range
of PCF-SPR biosensors have been designed. The coated metal
layer and sensing layer in a PCF-SPR sensor can be placed
either on the inside or on the outside of fiber structure. Di
Gao suggested a PCF-SPR sensor with internal gold (Au) and
­TiO2 coating which showed a higher RI resolution [21]. In
2015, A. Rifat suggested a new PCF-SPR sensor with inward
silver and thin graphene coating to detect high RI analytes [22].
Their sensor had maximum RI sensitivity of 3000 nm/RIU for
1.46–1.49 RI range. In the aforementioned PCFs, plasmonic
metals are coated surrounding the tiny air holes filled with
sample analyte and consequently provide higher sensitivity.
But these internally coated sensors result in problems related to
fabrication feasibility as it is very difficult to maintain accurate
coating of metal layers inside the microscopic air holes. In
order to reduce these complexities, several externally coated
13
M. R. Islam et al.
PCF-SPR sensors were proposed by researchers like D-shaped
fibers. Nannan Luan in [23] approached a D-shaped hollow
core PCF sensor and examined the sensor performances like
amplitude, wavelength and phase sensitivity. In [24], J. N.
Dash investigated a different D-shaped Ag-graphene-coated
PCF-SPR biosensor that shows amplitude sensitivity (AS)
of 216 ­RIU−1 and wavelength sensitivity (WS) of 3700 nm
­RIU−1. D-shaped structure also has drawbacks as it needs one-
side smooth polishing along with the removal of a portion of
PCF which leads to further fabrication difficulty. To minimize
these challenges, several PCF structures with external coating
have been proposed to achieve fabrication-friendly and struc-
turally uniform design. In [25], R. Otupiri examined a new
PCF-SPR design with circular air holes of different radii and
external gold layer along with micro-fluidic slots. It shows high
birefringence and is capable of multiple analyte detection by
utilizing two fundamental modes, ­HEx11 and ­HEy11. Maximum
wavelength resolution was found 6 × ­10–5 RIU, and maximum
amplitude resolution was found 4 × ­10–5. Another externally
coated fiber was proposed in [26] where maximum WS was
observed 2200 nm/RIU and maximum AS was 266 ­RIU−1 in
RI range of 1.33–1.36. Very recently several PCF-SPR struc-
tures have been studied by varying geometrical parameters
such as placing elliptical air holes, square air holes while oth-
ers use slotted arrangements [27–29].
In addition to the arrangement of metallic layers, choosing
the perfect plasmonic material also has significant impact
on analyte detection. Usually noble metals such as Cu, Ag
and Au are well established as plasmonic materials for their
high conductivity. Cu and Ag are very prone to oxidization
which results in greater optical losses [30, 31]. On the other
hand, Au is chemically stable, but shows broader resonance
peak which might convey the wrong result in sensing [32].
Al is also a cheaper noble metal which is unconventional
for plasmonics and is only discussed in theory [33]. Other
common problems that arise with these metals are: high
inter-band transition losses, surface roughness, nanofabrica-
tion difficulty and complications in tuning optical properties
[34]. Bimetallic layer over the top of metal layer was pro-
posed by Stephan A. Zynio in [35] to overcome oxidization
problem. But still it was not worthy enough to overcome all
the drawbacks, especially in IR (infra-red) and visible light
frequencies. Therefore, researchers have been inspired to find
higher-quality plasmonic materials over the years.
Recently, transparent conducting oxides (TCO) are consid-
ered to be a great substitute for traditional plasmonic metals
because they show metal-like conductivity when highly doped
and can be used as ultra-thin films in NIR spectrum and visible
regions [34, 36, 37]. Among several TCOs, indium tin oxide
(ITO) and highly doped zinc oxide (ZnO) hold great pros-
pects for various NIR applications [31]. In 2020, Qiang Liu
proposed a PCF-based SPR sensor using external ITO-coated
layer in NIR spectrum for the analyte with 1.26–1.38 RI range
AZO‑coated plasmonic PCF nanosensor for blood constituent detection in near‑infrared and…
[38]. Their designed sensor provides WS of 35,000 nm/RIU
and AS of 1120.73 ­RIU−1 which are better compared to the
prior works. It also shows better resolution in both amplitude
and wavelength. These sensors are modeling works only; none
of these are yet fabricated. The first PCF SPR sensor that was
fabricated showed a wavelength sensitivity of 2000 nm/RIU
for a RI range from 1.38 to 1.41 [39]. Gold was the plasmonic
material in this sensor. Elizaveta Klantsataya et al. fabricated
an exposed core microstructured optical fiber (ECF) which
showed a wavelength sensitivity of 1800 nm/RIU [40]. Ag
(Silver) was the plasmonic material in this sensor. Wei Chang
Wong et al. fabricated a gold-coated SPR sensor with a high-
est wavelength sensitivity of 3692 nm/RIU [41]. In [42],
Veerpal Kaur proposed a D-shaped PCF-SPR sensor where
double coating of ITO and ZnO was used over flat side of
PCF. Results show maximum WS of 10,000 nm/RIU which
is much larger in comparison with previous D-shaped SPR
sensors. However, indium is a scarce and costly material that
makes it unsuitable for large-scale production. ZnO doped
with group III elements, especially aluminum-doped ZnO
(AZO), is a great substitute of ITO in SPR sensing. In [34],
authors compared performances of AZO, gallium-doped ZnO
(GZO) and ITO and observed that AZO gives the lowest loss
and better tuning options both in carrier concentrations and
doping for specific applications. So, it can be stated that AZO
is a potential candidate for plasmonic material and can be
efficiently used in biosensing applications.
In this article, we propose an AZO-coated and SPR-
based PCF biosensor using circular-shaped air holes.
Water, hemoglobin, RBC, WBC and plasma—these blood
components are considered here as targeted analytes. To
date, few studies have considered PCF-based sensor for
blood component detection [19, 43, 44]. But to our best
knowledge, no study has proposed plasmonic biosensor to
determine blood components for near-infrared and visible
spectrum region using comparative amplitude sensitivity
(AS) as the sensitivity parameter. Different-sized air hole
arrangements and the coating of AZO layer in our sensor
provide higher sensitivity along with lower FWHM and
higher figure of merit. Furthermore, its simple geometri-
cal structure makes it fabrication-friendly and perfectly fit
for large-scale production. We envision that our proposed
sensor will be a promising choice to detect blood compo-
nents more efficiently and more selectively.
2 Structural modeling and numerical
analysis
The configuration of our proposed circular-sectored PCF-
SPR sensor with external plasmonic coating is illustrated in
Fig. 1. To model, optimize, and analyze the sensor perfor-
mance, finite element method (FEM)-based commercially
Page 3 of 13  86
available software COMSOL Multiphysics 5.3 is used in
this article. With the aims of achieving maximum simula-
tion precision, the physics-controlled fine mesh comprising
206,257 degrees of freedom is applied here in fine element
analysis. The complete mesh of the PCF is formed from
29,448 numbers of elements while minimum element quality
is 0.5031, average element quality is 0.8215, element area
ratio is 0.0007829, and mesh area is 227.9 μm2.
Figure 2 depicts the x–y cross-sectional arrangement of
the proposed sensor. It is composed of two different sized air
holes having diameter of d­ 1 and d­ 2, respectively. The smaller
holes are incorporated in the design to attain better cou-
pling of core mode or fundamental mode and SPP (surface
plasmon polariton) mode or plasmonic mode. Some holes
are excluded from the circular lattice so that the evanescent
field maintains a balanced flow. The distance between the
adjacent holes is named by pitch and set as ­P1 = 2 μm and
­P2 = 1.02 μm. AZO (Al-doped ZnO) is chosen here as plas-
monic layer where 2% weight of Al is doped in ZnO. The
sample sensing channel is placed next to AZO layer where
the width of the AZO plasmonic ring is ­WAZO = 30 nm and
the sensing channel ring is ts = 2 μm. A circular-shaped per-
fectly matched layer or PML [19] is added at the outside of
the analyte sensing channel which acts as an anti-reflecting
boundary. It constructs a perfectly absorbing domain which
absorbs the scattered light coming from the PCF. The PML
layer that we maintained here has thickness of tPML = 1.5 μm.
Fused silica (­SiO2) is used here as cladding material
because of its excellent transmission property and enhanced
chemical stability in optical spectrum. The refractive index
(RI) of silica can be obtained by using Sellmeier’s equation
[22].
Fig. 1  FEM mesh resolution of proposed PCF-SPR sensor
13
 86   Page 4 of 13 M. R. Islam et al.

B1 𝜆2 B2 𝜆2 B3 𝜆2 3 Performance analysis and simulation

n2 (𝜆) = 1 + − − (1) results
𝜆2 − C1 𝜆2 − C2 𝜆2 − C3

Here, n is the RI of fused silica which is dependent on
operating wavelength, λ. ­B1, ­B2, ­B3 and C
­ 1, ­C2, ­C3 are Sell-
meier’s constants in Eq. (1). Their values are, respectively,
­B1 = 0.69616300, ­B2 = 0.407942600, ­B3 = 0.897479400,
­C1 = 4.67914826 × ­10–3 μm2, ­C2 = 1.35120631 × ­10–2 μm2
and ­C3 = 97.9340025 μm2. The relative permittivity of AZO
(2% wt Al) is defined by the following equation for wave-
length range from 0.35 μm to 2 μm, which is described in
[34].
𝜔2p f1 𝜔 1 2
𝜀AZO (𝜔) = 𝜀b − )+( 2
( )
𝜔 𝜔 + j𝛾p 𝜔1 − 𝜔2 − j𝜔𝛾1
Here, ε b is denoted by the polarization response of
core electrons (background permittivity), ωp is the plasma
frequency, and γ is the Drude relaxation rate. The val-
ues of these parameters are: εb = 3.5402, ωp = 1.7473 eV,
γ p  = 0.04486  eV, γ 1  = 0.1017, ­f 1  = 0.5095  eV and
ω1 = 4.2942 eV.
Figure  3 illustrates the electromagnetic field profiles of
fundamental mode, plasmonic mode and coupling of both
modes for x and y polarized direction ­(HEx11 and ­HEy11,
respectively). Here strong coupling is observed in H­ Ey11 for
plasmonic mode.
To analyze the performance of the proposed fiber as a
blood component detector, we should consider several key
parameters, and confinement loss is the most important
one among these. In a conventional optical fiber, when
light passes through the core, it is not only confined within
the core, but also leaks into the cladding region. In the
(2)
case of a SPR-based PCF, this leaky light introduces an
electric and/or magnetic field intensity called evanescent
field. This field then interacts with the free electron pro-
vided by the plasmonic layer and generates surface plas-
mon wave (SPW) when the wavelength of fundamental
mode matches with the wavelength of the surface plas-
mon polariton (SPP) mode. This coupling of light between
two modes results in confinement loss (CL), and this loss

Fig. 2  Cross-sectional view of
the proposed sensor with ampli- wAZO AIR
fied view of air hole arrange-
ments
p2 SILICA Thin Wall Capillary
p1 d1 Solid Rod
d2 AZO Thick Wall Capillary
ts
SENSING
LAYER

PML
t pml

­ Ex11 and ­HEy11, b, d plasmonic mode for ­HEx11 and ­HEy11

Fig. 3  Electric field distributions of a, c fundamental mode for H

13
AZO‑coated plasmonic PCF nanosensor for blood constituent detection in near‑infrared and…
is very much sensitive to any change in the surrounding
unknown analyte. This phase-matching phenomenon is
­ Ex11 and H
illustrated nicely in Fig. 4a, b for H ­ Ey11 modes.
We will consider this x-polarization mode for solving
the optimization problem.
From Fig. 4, it can be realized that at a specific wave-
length real part of fundamental mode and plasmonic mode
intersects one another and at that, λ, confinement loss (CL)
peak is observed. CL could be defined as [26].
𝛼 = 40𝜋. Im(neff )∕(ln(10)𝜆) ≈ 8.686 × k0 . Im[neff ] × 104 dB/cm
where Im[neff] is the imaginary portion of the effective
refractive index of fundamental mode and k0 = 2π/λ is the
wavenumber in the vacuum. Further, the sensitivity of the
proposed sensor can be estimated by the following two types
of interrogation mechanism such as amplitude sensitivity
(AS) and wavelength sensitivity (WS).
The amplitude sensitivity can be defined as [26].
1 𝜕𝛼(𝜆, na )
SA (𝜆)[RIU −1 ] = −
𝛼(𝜆, na ) 𝜕na
Here α(λ, na) refers to the power loss at particular wave-
length that can be defined as α(λ, n a) = 2k0Im(neff) and k0
refers to the wave number = 2π/λ. On the other hand, the
wavelength sensitivity can be defined as [26]:
S𝜆 (𝜆)[nm∕RIU] = Δ𝜆peak ∕Δna
where Δλpeak represents the difference between two adja-
cent resonant wavelengths and Δna represents the difference
between two adjacent na. Further, another important param-
eter such as sensor resolution is widely used to determine
sensor’s performance. The smallest variation in RI detected
by a sensor is known as the sensor resolution. The equation
used to measure the resolution is [28]:
Fig. 4  Dispersion relation of the plasmonic mode, fundamental mode and loss continuum for a ­HEx11 mode and b ­HEy11 mode, considering
plasma (RI of Plasma = 1.35) analyte
Page 5 of 13  86
R(RIU) = 𝜕na × 𝜕𝜆min ∕𝜕𝜆peak (6)
where ∂λmin is the minimum wavelength resolution and ∂λpeak
is the resonant wavelength shift. In addition to the sensor
resolution, the length of the metal-coated fiber and the opti-
cal power output are also significant performance metrics for
design. The output optical power of the fiber can be obtained
as a function of the power loss, α(λ, na), from Eq. 3 and
sensor length, L [45]. It can be expressed in the following
equation.
(3) P L, 𝜆, na = P0 e−𝛼(𝜆,na )L (7)
( )
where P0 is the input light power entered into the fiber. Fiber
length, L, can be determined by the following equation that
is taken from [45]:
1
L= ( ) (8)
𝛼 𝜆, na
We will consider one more important metric named figure
(4) of merit or FOM which can be defined as a ratio of sensitiv-
ity to full width at half maximum (FWHM) [45].
FOM = S𝜆 ∕FWHM (9)
It depicts the gross performance of a sensor while the
high performance is realized for the increase in sensitivity
and decrease in FWHM.
(5)
4 Optimization of sensor parameters
The aforementioned performance metrics, i.e., confinement
loss (CL), amplitude sensitivity (AS) and wavelength sensi-
tivity (WS), are considerably dependent on the geometrical
parameters of the sensor. The most important parameters are
13
 86   Page 6 of 13
plasmonic layer width, sensing layer thickness, air hole radii
and pitch value. So, these parameters should be chosen pre-
cisely. Initially, we tend to optimize our design by applying the
following parameters ­WAZO = 30 nm, ts = 2 μm, tPML = 1.5 μm,
­d1 = 1.5 μm and ­d2 = 0.5 μm and adjust their optimum values
one at a time for ­HEx11. We have considered AZO as plas-
monic material throughout the optimization procedure.
4.1 Optimization of WAZO
Firstly, the plasmonic layer thickness ­(WAZO) is considered
to examine its impact on loss peak curves. Optimization of
­WAZO is done by keeping the default value for all parameters
except ­WAZO. In Fig. 5a, it is observed that the resonance
wavelengths for plasma and WBC shift to longer wave-
lengths with the gradual increase in AZO width. Also, loss
peaks become higher with increasing ­WAZO values because
SP modes are mostly influenced by plasmonic film thick-
ness. Maximum loss peak values obtained for AZO thick-
ness are 25.90742, 45.52951043 and 60.32287 dB/cm for
­WAZO = 20 nm, 25 nm and 30 nm, respectively. Maintaining
Fig. 5  a Confinement loss and b amplitude sensitivity as a function of λ for different AZO widths
Fig. 6  a Confinement loss and b amplitude sensitivity as a function of λ for different large air hole diameters
13
M. R. Islam et al.
a suitable range of λ from 0.4 μm to 0.65 μm, we note that
in Fig. 5b, amplitude sensitivity increases gradually with
an increase in AZO thickness from 20 to 25 nm. Further
increase in thickness from 25 to 30 nm results in reduction
in sensitivity. It is due to higher damping [46].
However, increment in plasmonic layer width beyond
25 nm also creates difficulty for the electric field to pen-
etrate the AZO layer as well as the sensing layer [38]. Hence,
highest sensitivity peak of 598.96 R ­ IU−1 is obtained when
the AZO width is 25 nm. Therefore, keeping the AZO width
fixed at 25 nm, we tend to further optimize the proposed
sensor for different structural parameters.
4.2 Optimization of large air hole, ­d1
To study the effect of different sized air holes on sensor
performance, further investigations are carried out. As there
are two types of air hole in the design, we first optimize
large air hole diameters ­(d1) by examining CL peak and AS
variation in plasma and WBC as a function of wavelength
in Fig. 6a, b.
AZO‑coated plasmonic PCF nanosensor for blood constituent detection in near‑infrared and…
Results indicate that CL peaks are decreasing with big-
ger ­d1, though peak positions are observed at the same
wavelength. The maximum amplitude sensitivity of 776.88
­RIU−1 is achieved for ­d1 = 1.2 µm. When diameter is var-
ied from 1.2 µm to 1.1 µm, the pitch between six large air
holes increases and coupling efficiency between fundamen-
tal mode and plasmonic mode reduces [27]. Because light
particles scatter through wider region, the penetration of
light from cladding to sensing channel through AZO layer
decreases. As a consequence, a slight reduction in sensitiv-
ity is observed. Again, when ­d1 is scaled up to 1.3 µm, the
distance between large air holes reduces, making strong con-
finement of light in the core which eventually creates lower
light level leading toward the plasmonic layer, and hence,
amplitude sensitivity decreases. Thus, ­d1 = 1.2 µm is taken
as optimum value of large air hole diameter.
4.3 Optimization of small air hole, ­d2
As stated before, small air holes are placed in the design so
that an efficient SPR phenomenon occurs. Therefore, the
impacts of small air holes are also plotted in Fig. 7a, b in
order to select an optimum diameter.
In this proposed design, initially, the diameter of the
small air holes is kept 0.4 µm, and at this diameter, corre-
sponding CL peak values for plasma and WBC are 146.95
and 164.97 dB/cm. If d­ 2 is varied upward or downward
than 0.4  µm, this will cause a decrease in surface plas-
mons, which in turn weakens the mode coupling along the
metal–dielectric interface [27]. When the value of ­d2 is
0.3 µm, the incident light gets scattered in the cladding and
thus cannot penetrate the metal layer. When the value of d­ 2 is
0.5 µm, the value of P
­ 2 decreases. That is why incident light
becomes less to penetrate the metal layer. Figure 7b shows
AS variation for different small-sized air holes. Maximum
AS value of 1057.89 dB/cm is achieved for ­d2 = 0.4 µm, and
Fig. 7  a Confinement loss and b amplitude sensitivity as a function of λ for different small air hole diameters
Page 7 of 13  86
hence, 0.4 µm is taken as the optimal size for better sensor
performance.
5 Sensor performance analysis
After optimizing all the sensor parameters, final investiga-
tion is done by evaluating confinement loss characteristics of
different blood components. We tend to consider five blood
components here as targeted analyte namely RBC (n = 1.40),
hemoglobin or Hb (n = 1.38), WBC (n = 1.36), plasma
(n = 1.35) and water (n = 1.33). Both CL and AS curves are
plotted using the optimal values of all sensor parameters for
­HEx11 in Fig. 8a, b and for ­HEy11 in Fig. 9a, b.
From Fig. 8a, we can observe that loss peaks are mov-
ing toward longer wavelengths for higher RI analytes like
Hb and WBC (RI = 1.38, 1.40, respectively), because for
higher RI analytes, corresponding RI of SPP mode also
changes and ultimately shifting of phase-matching points
occurs. Besides the spacing between adjacent CL curves is
smaller. Figure 8b exhibits the AS plots of the proposed
sensor where AS is also shifting to longer wavelengths like
CL curves and maximum AS is found for Hb-RBC. Table 1
demonstrates the comparative study of the characteristics
of the proposed sensor for different blood components in
­HEx11. The maximum AS and WS values achieved for ­HEx11
are 2576.38 R­ IU−1 and 1750 nm/RIU, respectively. Moreo-
ver, we achieved a minimum sensor resolution of 9.62 × ­10–5
which indicates that the proposed sensor can detect a RI
change of 9.62 × ­10–5 for 0.1 nm of λ variation.
As stated in Eq. 9, figure of merit or FOM is another
important metric for evaluating the performance of an SPR
sensor. To fabricate a highly performed sensor, it is neces-
sary to keep the FOM value the larger the better. For our
proposed sensor, maximum FOM obtained is 250 for Hb-
RBC in ­HEx11.
13
 86   Page 8 of 13 M. R. Islam et al.

­ Ex11 mode
Fig. 8  a Confinement loss and b amplitude sensitivity as a function of λ for different blood components for H

­ Ey11 mode
Fig. 9  a Confinement loss and b amplitude sensitivity as a function of λ for different blood components for H

Table 1  Performance analysis Blood Components AS (/RIU) WS (nm/RIU) Resolution FWHM (nm) FOM
of proposed sensor for different
blood components for H­ Ex11 Water–plasma  − 1550.33 850 1.18 × ­10–4
5 170
mode
Plasma–WBC  − 1057.89 1040 9.62 × ­10–5 7 148
WBC–hemoglobin  − 2269.71 1255 7.97 × ­10–5 7 179
Hemoglobin–RBC  − 2576.38 1750 5.71 × ­10–5 7 250

Table 2  Performance analysis Blood Components AS (/RIU) WS (nm/RIU) Resolution FWHM (nm) FOM
of proposed sensor for different
blood components for H­ Ey11 Water–plasma  − 1616 950 1.05 × ­10–4
6 158
mode
Plasma–WBC  − 1200.94 1100 9.09 × ­10–5 6 183
WBC–hemoglobin  − 3271.53 1350 7.41 × ­10–5 6 225
Hemoglobin–RBC  − 5078.99 1950 5.13 × ­10–5 6 325

In Fig. 9a, b, we observe the CL and AS plots for various
blood components in ­HEy11. It is noticeable that the spac-
ings between adjacent CL curves are wider here than ­HEx11.
Maximum loss peak and AS values are also larger here in
comparison with the previous values.
Table 2 shows the comparison of various blood compo-
nents in terms of sensor resolution, AS, WS and figure of
merit. The maximum AS obtained here is 5078.99 ­RIU−1
along with the maximum WS of 1950 nm/RIU. The lower-
most resolution of the sensor in ­HEx11 is almost similar to

13
AZO‑coated plasmonic PCF nanosensor for blood constituent detection in near‑infrared and…
the previous value. A better FOM value of 325 is observed
here. After analyzing all the observations, it is evident that
our proposed sensor provides better results for H ­ Ey11. Fig-
ure 3d shows stronger coupling of fundamental mode and
plasmonic mode is observed for y-direction.
Another important characteristic of sensor is linear
line fitting of resonance wavelengths, and it is observed in
Fig. 10a as a function of various analytes. Resonance wave-
length tends to shift with changing analyte RI for both ­HEx11
and ­HEy11. We have already determined WS values by using
Eq. 5 and put them into Tables 1 and 2. By using those WS
values, two curves are fitted very well for both polarization
modes.
From a practical viewpoint, the sensor length (L) is an
essential performance metric for sensor integration into
a real physical system. It is evident from Eq. 8 that L is
inversely proportional to absorption loss, α. In Fig. 10a, we
tend to observe the sensor length variation with different
analytes of interest and found that the feasible length of
sensing area can be in a range from ~ 0.0025 cm to 0.025 cm
to detect target components.
In Fig. 10b, FOM and FWHM are plotted against five
blood components for H ­ Ex11 and H
­ Ey11. It is observed that
FOM values increase for higher RI analytes, and for ­HEy11
it attained highest value of 325. On the other hand, FWHM
values for ­HEx11 and ­HEy11 remain equal except negligible
variation in x-direction.
After analyzing the above discussion, it is also obvious
that this proposed sensor shows better sensitivity and maxi-
mum FOM for ­HEy11 fundamental mode.
6 Future prospects of fabrication
The possible fabrication method of the proposed sensor is
discussed for future implementation. All the air holes of
our sensor are circular shaped which makes the designed
Fig. 10  a Line fitting curves for resonance wavelengths and data points of sensor length; b variation in FOMs and FWHMs as a function of vari-
ous blood components for H ­ Ex11 and ­HEy11 modes
Page 9 of 13  86
structure highly reliable and less complex. Due to the design
simplicity, one of the most popular fabrication techniques
named “stack-and-draw method” can be obtained here [47].
The whole process for the fabrication of our recommended
PCF is described below:
The first step in the process is illustrated in Fig. 11 where
two different-sized capillaries are constructed. These cap-
illaries have geometric dimensions greater than the actual
size. Generally, the size of the capillary is almost 100 times
more than the original size. So, the aforementioned air holes
of 1.2 µm and 0.4 µm become air holes with diameter of
120 µm and 40 µm.
The further fabrication steps are illustrated in Fig. 12 as
a flowchart. A preform is created by stacking all the capil-
laries. Then, with the help of a screw and holder the entire
preform is run through a furnace and drawn downwards.
With the help of a diameter monitor, the size of the cane
is maintained to be 10 times lesser than the whole stack.
So, in the cane the size of air holes becomes 12 µm and
4 µm. Then, this cane also goes through a furnace which
then makes the size of the air holes to 1.2 µm and 0.4 µm.
Therefore, it can be seen that the air hole size can be
brought down to much smaller than our proposed measure-
ments without any physical deformity, and thus, stack-and-
draw process can be easily implemented to fabricate our sen-
sor. After completing the fiber fabrication, chemical vapor
deposition (CVD) [44] can be applied to coat AZO layer.
By CVD process, plasmonic coating is layered maintaining
a thin and smooth surface over the PCF.
6.1 Fabrication tolerance analysis
The fabrication tolerance for the sensor structure has
been investigated and is thoroughly plotted in Fig. 13a–f.
Although the proposed sensor offers better sensitivity, higher
coupling efficiency, and improved fabrication reliability,
construction with derived dimensions is quite impractical
13
 86   Page 10 of 13
Fig. 11  Step-by-step fabrication Thick Wall Capillary
of the proposed fiber in stack-
and-draw method (capillary
stacking process) Thin Wall Capillary
(a) Capillary (b) Stacking of the
Creation Capillaries
Fig. 12  Step-by-step fabrication
of the proposed sensor (drawing
process)
due to process non-uniformity or limitation in reproducibil-
ity. As a consequence, we have considered ± 5% and ± 10%
variation from the optimized value in the air hole diameters
to observe fabrication feasibility.
In Fig. 13a, b, the influence of the tolerances of small
air hole ­(d2) diameters on the performance of the loss peak
has been obtained. Confinement loss peaks are observed for
both ­HEx11 and H ­ Ey11. Our optimum value for small air hole
diameter is d­ 2 = 0.4 µm. As the value decreases up to -10%,
the light within the core scatters over the cladding region,
arising high light penetration into the AZO layer as well as
the sensing layer [28]. As a result, higher confinement loss
is attained at the same wavelength. In contrast, if the value
is scaled up, the light within the core will become more
confined and there will be lesser light in the metal dielec-
tric layer which results in low coupling efficiency. For this
reason, lower value of loss peak is observed locating at the
same wavelength. In summary, the variation in d­ 2 causes
difference in loss peak value. Higher loss peaks are found
for smaller ­d2 while larger ­d2 produces lower peak values.
Figure 13a, b shows that the resonant wavelength is nearly
oblivious to the tolerances of small air hole dimensions.
The tolerances of large air hole diameter (­ d1) are also
investigated for HEx11 and HE11 in Fig. 13c, d. The variations
y
13
M. R. Islam et al.
Solid Rod
(c) Intermediate preform (d) Final Preform Drawing
Drawing
in ­d1 exhibit characteristics quite similar to the d­ 2. The high-
est loss peak is found at the optimum value of ­d1 = 1.2 μm.
Further increase or decrease in d­ 1 does not really affect
the peak value, except that a slight lower peak is observed
at + 10% tolerances. That is because if diameter increases
by 10%, the distance between the air holes becomes nar-
rower and light will be highly concentrated into the fiber
core which results in lower light leakage and lesser surface
excitation [28]. All the loss peaks are observed at the same
wavelength just like before.
The sensing layer thickness (t s) has also been exam-
ined for tolerance analysis with optimum value of 2 µm in
Fig. 13e, f. Here both polarization modes are taken into
consideration. It is evident from figure that loss curves
are quite indistinguishable from one another while vary-
ing ts by ± 5% to ± 10%. If ‘ts > ­tPML’ is maintained in an
SPR-based fiber, it does not have any effect for some ts
variations. In our design, this characteristic is retained,
and thus, there is no change in sensor performance even if
ts is varied up to ± 10%.
The preceding discussion about tolerance analysis out-
lined that slight changes occurred in loss depth with ± 10%
variation in the parameters, but the resonant wavelength
remains fairly insensitive. So, the overall performance of
AZO‑coated plasmonic PCF nanosensor for blood constituent detection in near‑infrared and… Page 11 of 13  86

Fig.13  Tolerance analysis by varying a, b small air hole diameter, c, d large air hole diameter, e, f sensing layer thickness for ­HEx11 and ­HEy11
modes

the proposed sensor will not be affected even though slight
mismatch occurs due to fabrication process.
Finally, a brief comparison is made in Table 3 based on
several performance parameters. In case of our application-
specific study, the highest RI analyte is RBC (1.4) and it
was not possible to study performance beyond this RI limit.
Moreover, there is no previous article that studied blood
component detection in terms of AS, WS and FOM. So we
compared proposed sensor performance with prior sensors
on the basis of RI range. It can be perceived that our pro-
posed sensor shows higher amplitude sensitivity and a rea-
sonably larger FOM value than other previous works. Con-
sidering all structural and performance metrics, our sensor
shows remarkable performance in blood constituent sensing
and opens a whole new approach in the study of blood-based
diagnosis.
7 Conclusion
To conclude, this article has suggested a highly sensitive
PCF-SPR sensor based on external AZO coating and has
argued that it is a superior substitute for blood component
detection in SPR-based sensing. External AZO layer in the
sensor provides advantages in design flexibility and optical
tuning over conventional metal films. Optimization of air

13
 86   Page 12 of 13 M. R. Islam et al.

Table 3  Comparative tabulation of proposed sensor and prior ones

Refs Polarization mode RI range Max. amplitude Max. wavelength sen- Sensor resolu- FOM
sensitivity ­(RIU−1) sitivity (nm/RIU) tion (Wave.)

[21] – 1.33–1.35 370 2000 5 × ­10–5

[22] – 1.46–1.49 418 3000 3.3 × ­10–5 –
[23] HEy11 1.33–1.34 120 2900 – –
[24] – 1.33–1.37 216 3700 2.7 × ­10–5 –
[26] HEy11 1.33–1.36 266 2200 4.5 × ­10–5 502
[27] HEx11 1.35–1.41 – 14,500 6.9 × ­10–6 387
HEy11 4738.9 – –
[28] HEx11 1.33–1.40 1757.3 32,000 3.125 × ­10–6 587.2
[48] HEy11 1.42–1.46 230 15,000 6.67 × ­10–6 45
[49] HEy11 1.47–1.48 700 8000 1.25 × ­10–5 138
Proposed sensor HEx11 1.33,1.35,1.36,1.38,1.4 2576.38 1750 5.71 × ­10–5 250
HEy11 5078.99 1950 5.13 × ­10–5 325

hole dimensions and AZO width is examined to get a clear
visual of sensor functionality. Using all optimized values,
several performance metrics of proposed sensor have been
analyzed. The simulation results show that this sensor gives
excellent sensing behavior, such as maximum amplitude
sensitivity and wavelength sensitivity of 5078.99 ­RIU−1
and 1950 nm/RIU, respectively, for Hb analyte (1.38) in
the ­HEy11 mode. Furthermore, this sensor provides a maxi-
mum resolution of 5.13 × ­10–5 and a superior FOM of 325
in ­HEy11 mode. In the ­HEx11 mode, maximum amplitude
sensitivity, wavelength sensitivity, sensor resolution and
FOM are 2576.38 R ­ IU−1, 1750 nm/RIU, 5.71 × ­10–5 and 250,
respectively. Analyzing the results, it can be said that if we
could study blood components with more than 1.4 RI, then
we would get even more WS and FOM. However, the simple
sensor structure can easily be fabricated by stack-and-draw
method. Thus, it can be affirmed that this sensor will offer
excellent performance for blood component detection. Our
future prediction is that as the research on PCF-SPR sensor
is still ongoing, our proposed sensor will explore the vast
field of biomolecular sensing and medical diagnostics.
Declarations  4, 299–304 (1983)
Conflict of interest  The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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