Yutong Yuan, Pengxiao Guo, Kanglei Wang, Lei Zhang
Abstract In the continuous development of fiber optic sensing technology, although traditional fiber optic sensors have been widely used in many fields, they have also exposed certain limitations. Specifically, traditional fiber optic sensors are limited by the refractive index (RI) of SiO 2 substrates, making it difficult to effectively measure high RI media. To overcome this limitation, this paper proposes a soda-lime glass-based D-type photonic crystal fiber surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor. Soda-lime glass has a higher RI compared to silica, which can significantly broaden the measurement range of sensors. The sensor has two independent sensing channels: the left channel is excited by SPR through a gold film for measuring high RI liquids; the right channel is used for temperature measurement by depositing a gold film and Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). This study analyzes the sensing characteristics and the influence of structural parameters (including pore radius, gold film thickness, and polishing depth) on the resonance spectrum through the finite element method. The results indicate that the maximum RI sensitivity of the sensor can reach 14400 nm RIU −1 within the range of RI 1.40∼1.48; in the low temperature range of −50 °C∼30 °C, the maximum temperature sensitivity is 1.6 nm °C −1 . This study uses soda-lime glass as the fiber substrate, breaking through the limitations of traditional silicon-based materials and demonstrating superior performance in low-temperature and high RI sensing fields.