采用Kretschmann结构激发表面等离子体,利用多孔陶瓷材料Si02作感湿材料,当外界环境的相对湿度变化时,引起感湿层Si02的折射率发生相应变化,导致表面等离子体共振角发生偏移.采用有限元法对传感系统在不同感湿层折射率下的反射谱进行了模拟分析,并根据反射谱的共振半峰宽和共振峰深度对金膜的厚度进行优化.研究结果表明:金膜的最佳厚度为55nm,反射谱的共振角偏移量与感湿层折射率变化呈线性关系,湿度检测的分辨率高达0.37%RH,灵敏度达到0.03°/%RH.该研究对基于表面等离子体共振原理的湿度传感器的研制与应用具有一定意义.
A method of humidity detection based on surface plasmon resonance was proposed. Kretschmann structure was applied to excite surface plasmon polarization. Porous ceramic SiO2 was used as the humidity-sensitive material. The refractive index of porous ceramic SiO2 altered as the ambient relative humidity changed, thus leading to a shift of surface plasmon resonance angle. On this basis, the reflection spectrum was simulated and analyzed under different refractive index of humidity-sensing layer by finite element method. Furthermore, the thickness of gold film was optimized in accordance with the full width at half maximum of reflection spectrum and the formant depth. The results show that, the best thickness of gold film is 55 nm, a linear relationship between the shift of surface plasmon resonance angle and the variation of humidity-sensing layer refractive index is got, high resolution of 0.37% RH and high sensitivity of 0.03°/% RH are obtained. The research contributes to the realization and application of humidity sensor based on surface plasmon resonance.