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Modelling and characterisation of surface plasmon based sensors for the detection of E. coli

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This article was downloaded by: [Duke University Libraries] On: 18 October 2012, At: 00:11 Publisher: Taylor & Francis Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Journal of Modern Optics Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tmop20 Modelling and characterisation of surface plasmon based sensors for the detection of E. coli M. Rajarajan a , T. Dar a , C. Themistos a , B.M.A. Rahman a , K.T.V. Grattan a , J. Homola b & J. Irudayaraj c a Biophotonics Group, City University, London, UK b Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics, Czech Republic c Agricultural & Biological Engineering, Purdue University, USA Version of record first published: 18 Mar 2009. To cite this article: M. Rajarajan, T. Dar, C. Themistos, B.M.A. Rahman, K.T.V. Grattan, J. Homola & J. Irudayaraj (2009): Modelling and characterisation of surface plasmon based sensors for the detection of E. coli , Journal of Modern Optics, 56:4, 564-571 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500340802657870 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.
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Page 1: Modelling and characterisation of surface plasmon based sensors for the detection of E. coli

This article was downloaded by: [Duke University Libraries]On: 18 October 2012, At: 00:11Publisher: Taylor & FrancisInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House,37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Journal of Modern OpticsPublication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tmop20

Modelling and characterisation of surface plasmonbased sensors for the detection of E. coliM. Rajarajan a , T. Dar a , C. Themistos a , B.M.A. Rahman a , K.T.V. Grattan a , J. Homola b

& J. Irudayaraj ca Biophotonics Group, City University, London, UKb Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics, Czech Republicc Agricultural & Biological Engineering, Purdue University, USA

Version of record first published: 18 Mar 2009.

To cite this article: M. Rajarajan, T. Dar, C. Themistos, B.M.A. Rahman, K.T.V. Grattan, J. Homola & J. Irudayaraj (2009):Modelling and characterisation of surface plasmon based sensors for the detection of E. coli , Journal of Modern Optics, 56:4,564-571

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500340802657870

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematicreproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form toanyone is expressly forbidden.

The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contentswill be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses shouldbe independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims,proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly inconnection with or arising out of the use of this material.

Page 2: Modelling and characterisation of surface plasmon based sensors for the detection of E. coli

Journal of Modern OpticsVol. 56, No. 4, 20 February 2009, 564–571

Modelling and characterisation of surface plasmon based sensors for the detection of E. coli

M. Rajarajana, T. Dara*, C. Themistosa, B.M.A. Rahmana,K.T.V. Grattana, J. Homolab and J. Irudayarajc

aBiophotonics Group, City University, London, UK; bInstitute of Radio Engineering and Electronics,Czech Republic; cAgricultural & Biological Engineering, Purdue University, USA

(Received 30 October 2008; final version received 28 November 2008)

The finite element method based on the full-vectorial H-field formulation incorporating the perturbationtechniques has been employed to calculate the complex propagation characteristics, the formation of the coupledsupermodes, and power fraction in the different regions, modal loss, differential loss and coupling length.The influence of the outer medium refractive index on the inner and outer surface plasmon modes (SPR) isinvestigated to achieve the best coupling and sensitivity. Finally the SRP fibre optic sensor design is numericallyoptimised for the maximum field penetration in the outer medium

Keywords: biosensor; E. coli; finite element method; surface plasmon resonance; fibre optics; full-vectorialH-field formulation

1. Introduction

Over the past decade, several types of biosensors havebeen developed for applications in medicine, environ-

mental monitoring and homeland security. However,

most conventional biosensors require a relatively long

assay time that involves complex liquid handling andlabelling procedures. Almost all of the commercially

available biosensors make use of fluorescent dyes or

enzymes. Hence, a label-free biosensor is an attractive

alternate for future biosensing applications. Severalgroups have developed different detection methods of

label-free biosensors. Label-free biosensors using

a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) [1], surface

plasmon resonance (SPR) [2] and metal nanoparticles[3,4], have been recently reported. Label-free

optical methods for detecting biological and chemical

interactions have a number of advantages; such asthe possibility to monitor biomolecular interaction in

real-time and good reliability of results that are

obtained using fewer operation procedures.

Especially, SPR biosensors based on the phenomenonof SPR is a powerful optical tool for monitoring the

binding event between biomoleculars in real-time

without the need for intrinsic or extrinsic labels.

However, the optimisation of these biosensors areimportant for the future development of compact

biosensors.This paper will characterise a biosensor using the

finite element based numerical tools for a specific

E. coli strain. Most of the E. coli detection systems use

a reporter method to determine if two or more

molecules interact. As a result, these conventionalmethods of pathogen detection require a number of

time-consuming steps to achieve a useable measure-

ment. However, the development and use of moreeffective biosensor technology could significantly

reduce this time, as well as allow the detection of

even smaller amounts of pathogens with fewer falsepositives. Today optical methods are widely used to

study the interaction of molecules in fields ranging

from genomics to biophysics.E. coli is a bacterium that commonly lives in the

intestines of people and animals [5–9]. The organism

can be found on a small number of cattle farms and

can live in the intestines of healthy cattle. Meat canbecome contaminated during slaughter, and organisms

can be thoroughly mixed in when it is ground. Bacteria

present on the cow’s udders or on equipment may getinto raw milk.

Although several technologies have been suggested

for the detection of pathogens in substances, surface

plasmon resonance based sensors are still promising

candidates compared to other biosensing techniques

due to their high degree of sensitivity, no need of

for fluorescent labelling of the biomolecules before

detection, real-time measurement of kinetics of the

biomolecular interaction, and immunity from electro-

magnetic interference [6–11].Although, SPR in a planar structure can be more

compact and integrable with other photonic devices,

*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

ISSN 0950–0340 print/ISSN 1362–3044 online

� 2009 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/09500340802657870

http://www.informaworld.com

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fibre based sensors would be easy to fabricate and

overall would be cheaper. Fibre optic biosensors areeasily miniaturised and integrated for the determina-tion of different target compounds in a wide variety of

application fields. Fibre optic sensors consume lessanalyte, are smaller in size, occupy less space, are lightin weight, more durable and have greater geometryversatility, hence, they are less expensive. They also

provide numerous ways of performing the rapid,remote, in-line and on-line determination of a lot oftypes of analytes in a wide range of application fields.

In the present work, the H-field finite elementmethod (FEM)-based full-vector formulation in con-

junction with the perturbation technique is used for thesolution of metal-clad fibre modes, where the trans-verse and longitudinal magnetic field components areanalysed with respect to the rectangular coordinates.

Therefore, the optical fibre modes are initially pre-sented in terms of the transverse magnetic fieldcomponents, Hx

mn and Hymn, as commonly used for

integrated optical waveguide problems, where the mand n subscripts denote the field maxima along thex- and the y-axes, respectively.

2. Theory

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is an optical

phenomenon that involves the transfer of light wavesinto electron waves at a thin metal layer [8].The surface plasmon mode (SPM) is essentially theelectromagnetic wave that is located at the metal–

dielectric interface because of the interaction with thefree electrons of the conductor. It has a maximum atthe interface and decays evanescently into both media.

The optical excitation of the SPM is achieved when thewavevector of the SPM is equal to the component ofthe wavevector of the incident lightwave along thedirection parallel to the interface. This phase matched

condition is dependent on dielectric constants ofmedia, optical wavelength, and incident angle oflightwave. When it is satisfied, the power of theincident lightwave is transferred to that of the SPM

and the reflected intensity is greatly reduced. Based onthis the variations of the refractive index of the sensingmedium can be monitored by the analysis of intensity,

phase, wavelength angle interrogation. In addition tothe phase matched condition the lightwave has to beTM polarised in order to couple with the SPM.

The key modal parameters in the design of anywaveguide are their propagation constants, confine-

ment factor, loss coefficients and the modal fieldprofiles. First of all it is essential to develop a modalsolution approach, which can provide this informationfor practical optical waveguides with arbitrary shape,

size, and material profile. Practical metallic conductorsare not perfect conductors and hence suffer significantloss of the electromagnetic waves, and therefore, themodelling of loss in the analysis of optical waveguides,incorporating metallic films and the interaction ofthe metallic films with dielectric materials in order toaccommodate guided waves, is considered to beimportant for the accurate design of various biosensordevices. As surface plasmon technology has reachedmaturity, the associated devices have, themselves,become more complex. The optimisation of suchadvanced devices requires the accurate characterisationof their lightwave propagation characteristics.Unfortunately analytical methods are not adequateto model these advanced sensing devices withoutsignificant approximation. Therefore, the optimisationof existing realistic designs or the evaluation of newdesigns has created great interest in the developmentand use of effective numerical methods. Hence, there isa significant need for the development and use ofnumerical methods to simulate complex structures inorder to optimise existing designs and evaluate noveldevices, either prior to or instead of fabrication andexperimental testing, which is time consuming andexpensive.

Several approaches for the analysis of SPMs, suchas field expansion approaches for matching the fieldcontinuity at the metal–dielectric interface of axiallysymmetric copper wire, the classical Sommerfeldwaveguiding principle to metal waveguides operatingin the millimetre-wave region, and more recently, a 3Dtime-harmonic simulation using the finite elementmethod (FEM) have been considered, but the lastone, being a 3D approach, requires very largecomputational resources [12–16].

Of the different numerical approaches consideredso far, the FEM is now established as one of the mostpowerful and versatile methods in many branches ofengineering [17]. In the FEM approach the problemdomain is divided into a patchwork of a finite numberof regions called elements. Each of these elements canhave different shapes, sizes and material. Using thisapproach a complex structure can be accuratelyrepresented. Most of the formulations used in theFEM, such as the scalar and H-field formulations arerestricted to structures without modal loss or gain. Dueto necessity for analysis of practical waveguides thatsuffer from loss or gain various alternative approacheshave been developed, such as the FEM solution interms of the transverse magnetic field Ht formulation.However, this formulation generates a complex eigen-value equation and therefore, is computationally moreexpensive. On the other hand, the vector H-fieldformulation used in conjunction with the perturbationtechnique, which is computationally more efficient,

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can be used for waveguides with low or medium lossvalues. The FEM H-field formulation has beenpreviously successfully applied in the characterisationof optical and THz waveguides [18]. In such cases, theperturbed fields were approximated by the fieldsobtained from the solution of the variational formula-tion using only the real part of the dielectric constant.The attenuation constant was calculated from thefields obtained from the loss-free system by usinga simple matrix multiplication, thus reducing thecalculation time and the large memory requirementsnecessary in other formulations, such as the Ht

formulation.In this paper the H-field FEM-based full-vector

formulation, in conjunction with the perturbationtechnique, has been used for the solution of themetal-clad waveguide modes where the transverseand longitudinal magnetic field components areanalysed with respect to the rectangular coordinates.Therefore, the waveguide modes are initially presentedin terms of the transverse magnetic fields componentsHx

mn and Hymn as commonly used for integrated optical

waveguide problems, where the m and n subscriptsdenote the field maxima along the x- and y-axes,respectively. As an example of this notation, the Hy

mn

mode (also known as the quasi-TE mode) indicatesthat the Hy (or Ex) field is dominant compared to thenon-dominant Hx (or Ey) field component.

3. Results and discussions

The structure studied here is shown in Figure 1. Thiskind of structure has become common in many sensorsbecause it has been observed that its behaviour isstrongly dependent on the refractive index of thesurrounding medium. Although, a side polished fibremay also be used, however, to study the effect of fibreparameters on optical properties, a circularly sym-metric structure is considered here.

A metal-coated mono-mode optical fibre is con-sidered for the understanding of the various loss

mechanisms and, subsequently, the design and optimi-sation of the biosensor for the detection of E. coli.The thickness of the gold metallic layer is taken as21 nm with a refractive index of n¼ 0.52þ 10.7j [19].The refractive index of the core and cladding is takenas 1.44868 and 1.44439, respectively, at an operatingwavelength of 1550 nm. Here, R1 is the radius of thecore and R2, R3, R4, and R5, are the thicknesses of thecladding, gold, outer medium and water layersrespectively. A two-fold symmetry has been employedfor the present analysis, where only a quarter of thewaveguide cross-section has been divided into 100 and120 azimuthal and radial divisions, respectively, thusforming a mesh of 23,900 first-order triangularelements. It takes about 48 s of CPU time to obtaina single modal solution on a 3.4GHz Pentiumprocessor.

Initially, R1, the radius of the core is taken as4.5 mm, the thickness of the gold, R3 is taken as 21 nm,R4, the outer medium thickness was varied from 2 to3 mm and R2 the cladding thickness was varied from5–10 mm. The values of the effective indices for themodes of the structures are represented as a function ofthe outer medium refractive index, R4. The refractiveindex of outer medium is varied from 1.440 to 1.453 tostudy the coupling between the inner surface plasmonmode (ISPM) and the outer surface plasmon mode(OSPM). There are two metal–dielectric interfaceswhich can support SPM: one at the outergold–dielectric boundary and the other at the innergold–dielectric boundary. In this waveguide, the modewith the dominant Hx field at the upper and lowermetal–dielectric interfaces is tangential to theseboundaries, which satisfies the electric–wall boundarycondition n �H¼ 0 and supports two SPMs along thesemetal–dielectric interfaces. These two surface plasmonmodes have different propagation constants. However,if the propagation constants are closer for these twomodes then the two modes can couple and forma supermode or super SPM.

As shown in Figure 2, as the refractive index of theouter medium increases the effective index differencebetween the outer surface plasmon mode (OSPM) andthe inner surface plasmon mode (ISPM) becomescloser and at phase matching condition they arenearly equal. The propagation constants of the twoSPMs are close at refractive indices of 1.449, 1.448for cladding thickness of 5 and 10 mm, respectively.In this case the outer medium thickness was fixed atR4¼ 2 mm.

Next, the E. coli layer with a refractive index valueof 1.370 [14] is added on top of the outer medium layer,R4 with phased matched refractive index values of1.449 and 1.448 for cladding thickness of 5 and 10 mm,respectively.Figure 1. Schematic of the SPR structure studied.

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The variation of the optical properties with themetal thickness, t, and the outer cladding materials canbe better explained with the aid of the field distributionalong the radial direction of the fibre and particularlynear the dielectric–metal and metal–dielectric inter-faces. Variations of the Hx field along the y-axis andthe x-axis for the outer SPM are shown in Figure 3. Itcan be observed that the field profile along the y-axis,as shown by the solid line, exhibits its maximum fieldintensity at the dielectric–metal interface at a radialdistance of 9.5, 14.5 and 19.5 mm for R2¼ 5 mm,R2¼ 10 mm and R2¼ 15 mm, respectively, and decaysrapidly in the metal region. In this configuration theHx does not see the SPM along the x-axis as n �H¼ 0forces the Hx field to be zero at the metal interface butthat is not true along the y-direction. On the otherhand, the Hy is forced to zero along the metal interface

on the x-axis and sees the SPM along the y-axis at themetal–dielectric interface. As can be seen from Figure 3when R2¼ 5 mm there is a strong interaction betweenthe fibre core mode and the surface plasmon mode andmost of the field is in the core region. However, as R2 isincreased to 15 mm the separation between the core andthe SPM modes becomes larger and weakens the phasematching. Hence, the core mode and the SPM will beweakly coupled and, as shown by the dashed-dottedline, most of the field is at the metal interface.

When the radial distance is greater than thethickness of the cladding, the optical field profilealong the x-axis has the maximum field intensity at thecentre, shown by a dashed line and gradually decreasesalong the radial distance reaching zero value at thecladding–metal interface.

The 3D contour profile of the Hx fields for thisSPM at the outer metal–dielectric interfaces are shownin Figures 4 and 5 for R2¼ 5 mm and R2¼ 15 mm,respectively. Here, it can also be seen that the fieldintensity is maximum at the upper and lower interfaces,where the electric wall boundary condition allows theHx component to have its maximum value. It can alsobe noticed that there are three peaks along they-direction, one in the core and two at the two verticalmetal–dielectric interfaces. Along the x-direction thefield is forced to zero at the metal–dielectric interfaceand has a maximum in the core region with no surfaceplasmon mode at this part of the metal–dielectricinterfaces

Figure 5 shows similar characteristics to Figure 4,however, as R2 is larger here, the interaction between

Figure 4. Hx field profile of the outer SPM, R2¼ 5 mm. (Thecolour version of this figure is included in the online versionof the journal.)

Figure 2. Effective index variation with the refractive indexof the outer medium, R4 for the inner and outer SPMs at thegold–cladding and the gold–outer medium interfaces, respec-tively for a cladding thickness of R2¼ 5, 10 mm.

Figure 3. Hx field profile along the y-axis and x-axis for theouter SPM.

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the core and SPM modes is smaller. It can also be seenclearly that the field is higher at the metal–dielectricboundaries. Further there is another mode which is notshown here, H

y31. This degenerate mode posses field

distribution characteristics similar to the Hx13 mode,

but rotated by 90�, and therefore these two degeneratemodes can be superimposed to form a radiallypolarized RP02 optical mode with fibre-mode likeproperties in the center of the fibre and surface-plasmon like behavior with an inverse peak fieldintensity at the dielectric–metal interface along thecircumference.

Figure 6 shows the coupling length as a function ofthe outer medium refractive index. The maximumcoupling length is observed when it is phase matched.

As can be seen from this figure, as the claddingthickness, R2 is increased from 5 to 15 mm althoughsimilar phase matching can be achieved, however, dueto increased separation between the core mode andSPM mode, the coupling length is increased. This canbe explained with the help of Figure 2. When thecladding thickness, R2 is 5 mm the inner and the outerSPMs are very strongly coupled hence the differencebetween their propagation constant is large givinga shorter coupling length. However, when R2 is 15 mmthe inner and the outer surface plasmon modes areweakly coupled and hence the difference between theirpropagation constant is small giving rise to anincreased coupling length. It can also be noticed thatthe peaks of the coupling length curves correlate withthe phase matching points from Figure 2.The specificity and the sensitivity of this sensor canbe controlled by selecting different R2 values. ForR2¼ 15 mm, coupling length, Lc, change is moresensitive with the change in the outer medium index,yielding a better design, however, length of thecoupling section would also increase. If the desiredchange in the outer medium refractive index is verysmall then by selecting a larger R2 value of 15 mm willgive the optimised design.

The thickness of the E. coli is an importantparameter in the design of the optical biosensors. Tostudy the effect of the thickness of the E. coli on thecoupling length the thickness was varied from0.2–0.7 mm. As can be seen from Figure 7 as thethickness of the E. coli is reduced from 0.7 to 0.2mmthe coupling length is increased from 1140 to 1300 mm,respectively. This shows that maximum power cou-pling can be achieved at a much shorter device lengthfor larger thickness of the E. coli.

Next the effect of the coupling length with thecladding thickness is studied for cases of with and

Figure 5. Hx field profile of the outer SPM, R2¼ 15 mm. (Thecolour version of this figure is included in the online versionof the journal.)

Figure 6. Coupling length against outer medium refractiveindex for R4¼ 2mm.

Figure 7. Coupling length as a function of the thickness ofthe E. coli region.

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without E. coli. As can be seen from Figure 8, the

coupling length increases monotonically for small

values of thickness and it reaches a maximum around

the optimum design condition of R2¼ 10 mm. As can be

see from this figure, the coupling length is maximum at

a cladding thickness, R2¼ 10 mm. This can be corre-

lated with Figure 2 where the ISPM and the OSPM

modes match very closely around 10 mm when the

outer medium index, R4 is 1.449. It can also be noticed

from Figure 8 that the maximum power transfer occurs

without E. coli when the device length is around

1600 mm. However, at nearly the coupling length

around 1300 mm the maximum power transfer happens

when there is a presence of E. coli. Hence, by carefully

selecting the length of the fibre and monitoring power

transfer, the presence of E. coli may be identified.Subsequently the attenuation characteristics of the

fibre mode with the variation of the cladding layer

thickness, R2 is studied and shown in Figure 9.

The outer medium refractive index was kept constant

at 1.449. As can be seen from this figure, the

attenuation is minimum for a smaller thickness of the

cladding region and increases with the increasing

cladding thickness. It can also be noted that the

attenuation loss is slightly lower without the E. coli

compared to with the E. coli and the values are very

different for high values of the cladding thickness.The modal loss, � strongly depends on the power

fraction in each of the constituent layers, which may

have widely different loss tangent values. Next, the

percentage of modal confinement of the RP01 mode

in the outer sensing medium, R4, is investigated for

a changing thickness of the cladding layer

thickness, R2. From the characteristics of Figure 10 it

can be observed that the power in the sensing region

increases with increasing cladding layer thickness, R2,

thus giving increased power in the sensing region. It

can also be noticed that the differential loss is

maximum at around a cladding thickness of 6.5 mm.

Hence, looking at Figures 8 and 9 the optimum design

will be around a cladding thickness of 6.5 mm when the

coupling length is around 1100 mm.Finally the structure was slightly modified to study

the effect of outer medium, R4. The thickness of the

outer medium, R4, is increased from 2 to 3 mm.

The refractive index of outer medium is varied from

1.440 to 1.453 to predict the coupling between modes.As shown in Figure 11 as the refractive index

increases the effective index of outer SPM also

increased and the effective index of inner SPM

doesn’t change that much, the propagation constants

of the two SPMs are phase matched only with the outer

layer refractive index of 1.449 and 1.446. In this case

the cladding thickness R2 of 5 mm when R4 is 2 and

3 mm, respectively, are used. It can be clearly observed

Figure 10. Percentage power in the outer medium, R4, asa function of the thickness of the cladding, R2.

Figure 8. Coupling length as a function of the claddingthickness with and without E. coli for an outer mediumindex, R4 of 1.449.

Figure 9. Attenuation constant (�) for the RP01 mode withthe thickness of the cladding, R2.

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that these two eigenvalue lines do not cross each other.

The effective index of the ISPM strongly depends on

the outer layer refractive index and increases mono-

tonically. The effective index of the OSPM increases

much faster with the changing outer refractive index as

the metal layer sees the outer mode.Finally, the biosensor is optimised for the max-

imum percentage of power in the E. coli region. It can

be seen from Figure 12 that the maximum detection is

possible when the outer medium, R4, refractive index is

1.449, the thickness of the cladding, R2, is 10 mm, and

the thickness of the outer medium is 2 mm. As the outer

medium refractive index is reduced it can be noticed

that the percentage of power in the E. coli region is also

slowly reducing showing that increased index

difference between the E. coli and the outer mediumhas more power confined in the E. coli region.

4. Conclusions

A finite-element approach based on a full-vectorialH-field formulation in conjunction with the perturba-tion technique has been used to study the surfaceplasmon resonance based fibre optic biosensors todetect E. coli. The newly developed polar coordinatediscretisation used here has matched accurately thecircular layers of the waveguide, and the optical fieldprofiles and optical power confinement were rigorouslypresented for each layer. The SPMS propagating in theabove waveguide and the study of their propagationand attenuation characteristics, with the variation ofthe metal layer thickness and outer layer thickness isinvestigated. It has been shown that by changing therefractive index of the outer medium, R4, the effectiveindex of the inner and the outer surface plasmonmodes can be matched to achieve better couplingefficiency. The effect of coupling length, modalconfinement and modal loss are studied with andwithout the presence of E. coli in the outer medium.We have also shown the differential coupling lengthand differential attenuation for the cases of with andwithout E. coli.

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Figure 11. Effective index as a function of the outer mediumindex for the fiber mode and (SPM) surface plasmon modefor an outer medium thickness of R4¼ 2 and 3mm andcladding thickness, R2¼ 5mm.

Figure 12. Percentage of power in the E. coli (R5) region asa function of cladding thickness for different outer mediumrefractive indices.

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