High linearity temperature-compensated SPR fiber sensor for the detection of glucose solution concentrations

In the realm of optical fiber sensing, conventional surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors often face challenges due to their low linearity, broad resonance, and susceptibility to external temperature changes. To that end, we evaluate a groundbreaking approach with a temperature-compensating SPR biosensor based on the Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI), featuring a novel tapered multimode fiber-single mode fiber-multimode fiber (MMF-SMF-MMF) architecture. Specifically, the SPR is excited on a silver film modified by reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and π-π stacked pyrene-1-boric acid providing specific glucose binding ability. The MZI effect compensating for ambient temperature influence on the SPR is realized with the MMF-SMF-MMF structure. The study also explores the use of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) for separate, granular analysis of the MZI and SPR signals and improves the linearity of the sensor using a novel centroid-fitting technique. This method utilizes the shift of calculated centroid coordinates rather than the single dip resonance wavelength from SPR, enhancing the overall performance of the sensor. The experimental results demonstrate excellent glucose sensitivity of 2.819 nm/mM, a linear range of 0–10 mmol/L, a LOD of 0.12 mM/L and concurrent temperature compensation. Compact and easy to fabricate, the proposed SPR sensor provides a novel solution for accurate glucose concentration detection in human blood.