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Highly Stable Plasmonic Nanostructures on a Nickel-Sputtered Glass and Polymeric Optical Fiber Sensors

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Abstract

This study shows development of highly sensitive and stable localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR)-active U-bent glass and polymeric optical fiber (GOF and POF) sensor probes by a seed-mediated in situ growth technique. Here, the nickel/nickel oxide seeds (Ni/NiO, 3 to 5 nm size) were formed on the U-region of the fiber probe by sputter coating nickel under a low vacuum (3 Pa), and then, gold nanostructures (AuNSs) were grown over the Ni/NiO seeds. The evanescent wave absorbance (EWA) phenomenon in the U-bent fiber probe was exploited to monitor the growth kinetics of AuNSs in real-time. Experimental observations point to a potential galvanic replacement of Ni by Au. The newly formed AuNSs on U-bent GOF and POF probes gave rise to a LSPR-based refractive index sensitivity of 27.66 and 25.65 ΔA/ΔRIU with plasmonic peak at 600 and 570 nm, respectively. These plasmonic probes show an excellent chemical and mechanical stability, in addition to high surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activity. This quick and facile technique is highly suitable for large-scale manufacture of reliable plasmonic fiber optic sensor probes for chemical and bio sensing applications.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from Indo-German Science & Technology Centre (IGSTC) and Indo-UK water quality research program funded by Department of Science and Technology (DST), India. The authors thank Prof. A. Subrahmanyam (Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Madras) for giving access to UV-visible and Raman spectrometer facility. We also acknowledge HR-SEM and sputtering facility in Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras funded by FIST grant from DST, India. Hariharan Manoharan acknowledges the PhD scholarship from Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. We thank Mr. S. Allwyn (research scholar, IITM) and Mr. Lakshmana Swamy (Project officer, IITM) for designing the customized white LED light source.

Funding

The authors received financial support from Indo-German Science & Technology Centre (IGSTC) and Indo-UK water quality research program funded by Department of Science and Technology (DST), India.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biomedical Engineering Laboratory, Department of Applied Mechanics, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, 600036, India

    Hariharan Manoharan & V. V. R. Sai

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, 600036, India

    Dharanibalaji KC

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  1. Hariharan Manoharan
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Contributions

Hariharan Manoharan: conception/design of the work; data acquisition, analysis, interpretation, and manuscript writing.

Dharanibalaji K C: conception/design of the work, data acquisition, and analysis.

V. V. R. Sai: conception/design of the work, data analysis, interpretation, manuscript editing, and project management.

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Correspondence to V. V. R. Sai.

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Manoharan, H., KC, D. & Sai, V.V.R. Highly Stable Plasmonic Nanostructures on a Nickel-Sputtered Glass and Polymeric Optical Fiber Sensors. Plasmonics 16, 1307–1318 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-021-01400-1

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