Brazilian Journal of Physics (2022) 52: 80

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13538-022-01088-6

GENERAL AND APPLIED PHYSICS

Impact of Taguchi Optimization in Fiber Surface Plasmon Resonance

Sensors Based on ­Si3N4 Layer
N. Mudgal1 · Kamal Kishor Choure1 · Manoj Kumar Falaswal1 · Rahul Pandey2 · Ankit Agarwal2 · Dinesh Bhatia3 ·
Ankur Saharia4 · Saurabh Sahu5 · G. Singh1

Received: 28 September 2021 / Accepted: 9 March 2022 / Published online: 17 March 2022
© The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Sociedade Brasileira de Física 2022

Abstract
This article exhibits a fiber plasmonic sensor based on a silver (Ag) layer and a silicon nitride ­(Si3N4) layer with a wide
dynamic range of refractive index sensing. The Taguchi (L9) orthogonal array method is applied to optimize the design
parameters such as fiber core, sensing region length, and the thickness of Ag/Si3N4 layers. The performance of the structure
is investigated for the full-width half maxima (FWHM) as the smaller the better (STB). The smaller FWHM favors accurate
detection, high-quality factor, and better sensitive detection of biomolecules. With the use of analysis of variance (ANOVA),
it is evident that for the normalized transmitted power, the Ag layer thickness contributes 47.36%, while the S ­ i3N4 layer
thickness contributes 0.06% only. Furthermore, the length of the sensing region has the highest dominating factor effect of
53.26% whereas the thickness of the ­Si3N4 layer has the least dominating factor effect of 6.90% on FWHM. This work has
shown the highest sensitivity of 6287 nm/RIU whereas the quality factor and detection accuracy are 873.19 ­RIU−1 and 87.31
respectively. Hence, Taguchi’s optimization approach is suitable in multilevel optimization of different control factors that
lead to the robust design of the fiber SPR sensor.

Keywords Taguchi optimization · Surface plasmon resonance · Silver · Silicon nitride · Sensor

1 Introduction described in 1968 by Kretschmann using a high refractive

index (RI) prism to couple light at the metal–dielectric inter-
Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is a well-known technique face surrounded by the sensing medium, in which angular
with potential sensing applications in a variety of domains, interrogation method was used to see the sharp dip in the
including biomedical science and environmental science [1, reflectivity spectrum [5]. However, the bulky and movable
2]. In recent years, the SPR sensor has gained popularity prism setup limits the prism-based sensing approach. The
because of its label-free and real-time sensing [3, 4]. In tra- growing expectation for miniaturized, low-cost sensors suit-
ditional SPR sensing, a glass prism along with a thin metal able for remote sensing has been attracting researchers to
film is employed to excite the surface plasmons (SPs) at propose new fiber-based sensors. Lidberg et al. originally
the metal–dielectric interface. This phenomenon was first presented SPR technology in a fiber-based sensor in 1983,
which initiated this technology in the SPR sensing applica-
tions. These types of sensors have been widely employed
* N. Mudgal in biomedical science, food safety, biomolecules detection,
[email protected] and environmental protection, etc. [6–10]. In the fiber sens-
1
Department of ECE, Malaviya National Institute ing approach, a glass prism is replaced with the fiber core
of Technology, Jaipur, India that is used to guide light waves and a small portion of fiber
2
Swami Keshvanand Institute of Technology, Management & cladding is removed. Over unclad fiber, a metal layer is pro-
Gramothan, Jaipur, India duced. For the evaluation of sensor performance, the sam-
3
University Departments, Rajasthan Technical University, ple to be detected is positioned around the layer of metal,
Kota, India and the resonance wavelength shift with the RI change is
4
Manipal University, Jaipur, India observed [11, 12]. Silver, copper, and gold are the most com-
5 mon plasmonic active metals. These are produced on the
Jabalpur Engineering College, Jabalpur, India

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80 Page 2 of 10 Brazilian Journal of Physics (2022) 52: 80

unclad fiber core’s surface. In comparison to these materials, fiber [24]. The RI of the fused silica core (ncore) may be
gold is extremely stable. Because silver and copper have calculated using the given dispersion equation [25] :
weak chemical stability and these are supposed to oxidize )1 ∕2
fast. This makes them lesser stable for the SPR sensor. As
(
a1 𝜆2 a2 𝜆2 a3 𝜆2
a result, applying a protective layer on the surface of these ncore (𝜆) = 1+ + + (1)
𝜆2 − b21 𝜆2 − b22 𝜆2 − b23
layers is a feasible option for making an SPR sensor more
durable [13–15]. In recent times, the use of transition metal Here, a1 = 0.6961663, b1 = 0.0684043, a2 = 0.4079426,
dichalcogenide (TMDC) materials such as WSe2, MoS2, b2 = 0.1162414, a3 = 0.8974794, and b3 = 9.896161 are the
MoSe2, and WS2 is seen in SPR sensing. These materi- Sellmeier coefficients and “λ” is the wavelength in nm [26].
als serve as supporting materials for enhancing plasmons in Ag metal layer of the thickness of 50 nm is grown over the
SPR sensing [16–21]. unclad portion of the fiber. Liquid-phase deposition tech-
In this work, a protective layer of silicon nitride (Si3N4) nique can be used to deposit silver layer over the unclad
has been deposited over the surface of the Ag layer that makes surface of optical fiber [27]. The dielectric constant of this
this structure more stable. Si3N4 has a huge bandgap (~ 5 eV) layer (𝜖 Ag ) is computed using the given Drude relation [28] :
and received interest due to its excellent chemical and thermal
stability [22, 23]. Here, we have used the Taguchi method to 𝜆2 𝜆c
optimize the designing parameters employed in the proposed
𝜖Ag (𝜆) = 1 − (2)
𝜆2p (𝜆c + i𝜆)
fiber SPR sensor. In the traditional approach, one factor at a
time is optimized such that when the thickness of one layer is here, 𝜆c stands for collision (damping) wavelength and is
optimized, the thickness of the other layer is kept fixed. This defined as the wavelength corresponding to the damping of
process makes the high numbers of optimization tests. Due to the oscillations of the electron density because of the colli-
this reason, the parameters generated with this approach are sion among the electrons. The value of 𝜆c is 1.7614 × 10−5 m.
not sufficient for the designing of such sensors. The Taguchi Furthermore, 𝜆p stands for plasma wavelength. It is the
technique aids in the creation of a robust design by taking wavelength that corresponds to the frequency of the elec-
into account all of the sensor’s control elements. As a result, tron density oscillations in the metal. The value of 𝜆p is
a high-performance SPR biosensor can be made with a small 1.4541 × 10−7 m [29]. Next, to protect the silver layer from
number of tests. oxidation, a thin layer of ­Si3N4 of the thickness of 5 nm is
grown over the covered region of the Ag layer. Magnetron
sputtering technique can be used to deposit S­ i3N4 film on the
surface of silver layer [30]. The dielectric constant for this
2 Sensor Design Parameters can be computed using following relation [31] :
( )
Taguchi’s optimized design of the proposed fiber-based SPR 3.0249𝜆2 40314𝜆2
𝜖Si3N4 (𝜆) = 1 + +
sensor is represented in Fig. 1. Here, the fused silica fiber 𝜆2 − 0.13534062 𝜆2 − 1239.8422
core having a diameter of 600 µm is utilized to carry light (3)
waves from one side of the fiber to another side, in which At the transmitting end of the fiber, light is incident and
a 10-mm length of fiber cladding is removed. Fiber optic propagates through the fiber. The evanescent wave is gen-
probe with 600 µm of core diameter can be fabricated by erated at the metal surface that excites the SPs wave when
removing 10-mm cladding portion from the middle region the light wave is completely reflected in the detecting area.
of a fiber using a sharp blade. After that, acetone and de- Lastly, we chose water as the detecting medium, which has a
ionized water can be used to clean the unclad area of the RI of 1.33 and measured the change in RI from 1.33 to 1.43

Fig. 1  Plasmonic fiber-based

sensor structure

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which is suitable for most of the biological reaction. We are

[ −i
]
cos 𝛽j sin 𝛽j
restricted to this range because the resonance curve does not here, for the jth layer, Mj = qj is the
−iqj sin 𝛽j cos 𝛽j √
follow standardization after this range. ( )
characteristic matrix, in which transverse RI qj = 1
𝜀j
√(
𝜀j − n21 sin2 𝜃1 ∕𝜀j and phase factor βj = ( )
)
3 Mathematical Modeling cos 𝜃j =
­nj cos 𝜃j zj − zj−1 ; where zj − zj−1 is the thickness of the
( ) ( )

When p-polarized light is emitted into the transmitting jth layer.

end, it travels to the receiving end. In this, light propagates
through the mechanism of total internal reflection (TIR). So
the evanescent wave of the propagating ray can be used to 4 Sensor Performance Parameters
excite the SPs [32]. The surface plasmon wave vector (𝛽 sp )
and incident light wave vector (kx ) should be identical for The sensor performance in this study is evaluated for sensi-
resonance. In terms of mathematics [33], the equation is as tivity, quality factor, and detection accuracy. The sensitivity
follows: ( Sλ ) is expressed in terms of resonance wavelength change
( 𝛿λ ) and RI change (𝛿n) and can be expressed as follows
𝛽sp = kx (4)
[36] :
𝛿λ nm
{ √ } ( )
2𝜋 𝜀m 𝜀die 2𝜋 Sλ = (9)
Re = n sin 𝜃 (5) 𝛿n RIU
𝜆 𝜀m +𝜀die 𝜆 core
The quality factor (Q) is determined by the ratio of sensi-
where 𝜀m and 𝜀die signify the dielectric constant of metal and
tivity to FWHM and can be written as follows [37] :
sensing medium respectively, ncore denotes the RI of the fiber
core and 𝜆 denotes the incident light wavelength. Q = S𝜆 ∕FWHM RIU−1 (10)
( )
For p-polarized wave incident at transmitting end at angle
θ, the normalized transmitted power (Ptrans ) at the receiving The FWHM of an SPR curve is the spectral width that
end of the fiber can be computed as follows [34] : corresponds to the 50% value of transmission spectra. The
( )2 ) third important performance parameter is the detection
accuracy which can be given by the ratio of 𝛿λ to FWHM,
𝜋∕2 N (𝜃) (
∫𝜃 Rp ref n21 sin 𝜃 cos 𝜃∕ 1 − n21 cos2 𝜃 dθ
cr
Ptrans = ( )2 ) mathematically [38] :
𝜋∕2 (
∫𝜃 n21 sin 𝜃 cos 𝜃∕ 1 − n21 cos2 𝜃 dθ
cr
Detection accuracy = 𝛿λ∕FWHM (11)
(6)
where Nref = L∕D tan 𝜃 denotes the total number of reflec-
tions performed by the incident wave in the sensing region,
D and L denote the core diameter and the sensing region 5 Result Analysis and Discussion
length respectively, 𝜃cr = sin−1 ncl ∕ncore denotes the criti-
cal angle at the interface of the core-cladding while ncl The Taguchi technique is a popular tool for increasing effi-
and ncore denote the RI of the cladding and core of the fiber ciency in research and development. It uses a unique design
respectively. of orthogonal arrays to examine control parameters with only
The Fresnel multilayer reflection theory is used to com- the few trials, greatly reducing the number of tests and increas-
pute the reflectance (Rp ) of this multilayer structure (core/ ing efficiency. It aids in determining the impact of a variety
metal/Si3N4/sensing medium) and is provided by [35]. of control elements on the device quality characteristics. Fur-
thermore, signal to noise (SNR) ratio in the Taguchi technique
Rp = rp rp ∗ = |rp 2 | (7) aids researchers to quickly identifying the best combinations of
| |
| |
the desired design specifications [39]. In the presented work,
For p-polarized light, the reflection coefficient (rp ) is as Taguchi L9 orthogonal array is used to optimize the differ-
follows: ent control parameters of this structure. The diameter of the
( ) ( ) fiber core, length of the sensing region, and the thickness of
q1 M11 + M12 qN − M21 + M22 qN
rp = ( ) ( ) (8) the silver layer and the silicon nitride layer are taken as con-
q1 M11 + M12 qN + M21 + M22 qN trol factors that mainly affect the performance of the designed

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Table 1  Studied control factors and level representation the help of Fresnel multilayer reflection theory and transfer
Control factors Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
matrix method. Furthermore, Taguchi L9 orthogonal array
is used to calculate SNR for the desired control factors that
Core diameter (µm) 400 500 600 we can consider smaller the better for FWHM.
Length of sensing region (mm) 10 15 20 Mean and SNR are calculated for FWHM and normal-
Thickness of silver layer (nm) 40 50 60 ized transmitted power for all nine experiments. In Taguchi
Thickness of ­Si3N4 layer (nm) 3 5 7 design analysis, SNR can be categorized as larger the better,
nominal the best, and smaller the best. In designing of fiber
SPR sensor, small FWHM and large normalized transmitted
structure. These control factors are listed in Table 1. With these power are the prerequisites. Normalized transmitted power
control factors, the appropriate orthogonal array is L9. FWHM with SNR (smaller the better) for different experiments is
and normalized transmitted power for all nine experiments can shown in Table 4. Here, SNR is selected for smaller the bet-
be calculated from Fig. 2. With the Taguchi array structure, ter for best performance of the proposed sensor that can be
the number of simulation trials has been cut from 81 (34) to 9 calculated by the following equation [40] :
only. This saves cost, time, and the number of attempts while
1 ∑n 2
optimizing the SPR sensor’s design parameters. SNRSmaller the better = −10 log10 ( Y ) (12)
n i=1 i
FWHM is the important parameter in designing of sen-
sor that mainly gives the spectral width of the SPR curve. If here, n represents the number of trials and Yi denotes the
the FWHM of the SPR curve is large, the quality factor and response for a specific factor-level combination.
detection accuracy decrease as expressed in Eqs. 10 and 11
respectively. Here, we have optimized the performance for 5.1 Interpretation of Response Table for FWHM
smaller the better SNR. Furthermore, SNR for the FWHM
with the Si3N4 layer and without the Si3N4 layer is shown The response table is utilized to determine the appropriate
in Tables 2 and 3 respectively. It is seen that adding the level for each control factor. Response characteristics of
Si3N4 layer reduces the FWHM which is the primary pre- different control factors with SNR for FWHM are depicted
requisite for designing for such an SPR sensor. In Table 2, in Table 5. In this, the factors with the greatest effect on
FWHM is calculated from the SPR curve that can plot with FWHM are identified using rank values and delta. The rank

Fig. 2  SPR spectra of normal-

ized transmitted power for dif-
ferent numbers of experiment

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Table 2  FWHM with their SNR Experi- Control factors FWHM (nm) SNR
for different experiments ment
no. Core Length of Thickness of Thickness of
diameter sensing region silver layer Si3N4 layer
(µm) (mm) (nm) (nm)

1 400 10 40 3 17.8 − 25.0084

2 400 15 45 5 20.3 − 26.1499
3 400 20 50 7 17.9 − 25.0571
4 500 10 45 7 10.0 − 20.0000
5 500 15 50 3 9.0 − 19.0849
6 500 20 40 5 25.0 − 27.9588
7 600 10 50 5 7.2 − 17.1466
8 600 15 40 7 13.5 − 22.6067
9 600 20 45 3 23.1 − 27.2722

Table 3  FWHM with their Experiment Control factors FWHM (nm) SNR
SNR without the ­Si3N4 layer for no.
different experiment Core Length of sensing Thickness of silver
diameter (µm) region (mm) layer (nm)

1 400 10 40 21.2 − 26.5267

2 400 15 45 27.6 − 28.8182
3 400 20 50 28.5 − 29.0969
4 500 10 45 16.8 − 24.5062
5 500 15 50 11.7 − 21.3637
6 500 20 40 33.5 − 30.5009
7 600 10 50 12.4 − 21.8684
8 600 15 40 21.2 − 26.5267
9 600 20 45 27.6 − 28.8182

Table 4  Normalized transmitted power with their SNR for different experiments
Experiment Control factors Normalized SNR (smaller
no. transmitted power the better)
Core diameter Length of sensing Thickness of silver Thickness of Si3N4 (STB)
(µm) region (mm) layer (nm) layer (nm)

1 400 10 40 3 0.035250 29.0568

2 400 15 45 5 0.039170 28.1409
3 400 20 50 7 0.072900 22.7454
4 500 10 45 7 0.239200 12.4248
5 500 15 50 3 0.334400 9.5147
6 500 20 40 5 0.003253 49.7543
7 600 10 50 5 0.374600 8.5286
8 600 15 40 7 0.085310 21.3800
9 600 20 45 3 0.026070 31.6772

of sensing region length is one while the rank of silver 5.2 Interpretation of Response Table
layer thickness, core diameter, and Si3N4 layer is 2, 3, and for Normalized Transmitted Power
4 respectively. This means that the length of the sensing
region has the highest contributing effect of smaller SNR The response table for different control factors for the nor-
for FWHM. The overall mean value of SNR for FWHM malized transmitted power is shown in Table 6. In this, the
from Fig. 3 is obtained at − 23.365. thickness of the Ag layer with a delta value of 19.80 and

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Table 5  Response table for SNR for different control factors for Table 6  Response table for different control factors for normalized
FWHM; smaller the better transmitted power; smaller the better
Level Core Length of Thickness of Thickness of Level Core Length of Thickness of Thickness of
diameter sensing region silver layer Si3N4 layer diameter sensing region silver layer Si3N4 layer
(µm) (mm) (nm) (nm) (µm) (mm) (nm) (nm)

1 − 25.41 − 20.72 − 25.19 − 23.79 1 26.65 16.67 33.40 23.42

2 − 22.35 − 22.61 − 24.47 − 23.75 2 23.90 19.68 24.08 28.81
3 − 22.34 − 26.76 − 20.43 − 22.55 3 20.53 34.73 13.60 18.85
Delta 3.06 6.04 4.76 1.23 Delta 6.12 18.06 19.80 9.96
Rank 3 1 2 4 Rank 4 2 1 3

rank 1 has the highest factor in optimizing normalized trans-

mitted power in designing the proposed SPR sensor. Further- control factor. The high percentage value of a contribution
more, the length of the sensing region and thickness of the has the greatest impact on the FWHM and normalized trans-
Si3N4 layer are having ranks 2 and 3 respectively. Here, the mitted power. From Table 7, it is clear that the length of the
diameter of the fiber core had the lowest factor with rank 4 sensing region has the highest contribution factor effect of
in optimizing the normalized transmitted power. The main 53.27% on FWHM followed by thickness of the silver layer
effect plot of SNR representation for normalized transmitted and core diameter with 29.83% and 10% respectively while
power with different control factors is shown in Fig. 4. This the thickness of the Si3N4 layer has least contribution effect
plot indicates that the thickness of the silver layer has the of 6.90% on optimization of the FWHM. ANOVA analy-
highest factor effect on SNR for the normalized transmitted sis for normalized transmitted power depicted in Table 8
power. shows that the thickness of the silver layer has the high-
est contribution factor effect of 47.36% on optimization of
5.3 Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) Interpretation the normalized transmitted power followed by the length of
sensing region and the core diameter with 31.58% and 21%
The analysis of variance (ANOVA), a popular statistical respectively while the thickness of Si3N4 layer has the least
approach, is used to see which of the control factors had a contribution factor effect of 0.06% on optimization of the
significant impact on the performance parameters. ANOVA normalized transmitted power.
interpretation for FWHM and normalized transmitted power In conclusion, the best selection of control parameters
is given in Tables 7 and 8 respectively. The contribution of with the Taguchi optimization method for designing the
control factor was chosen to indicate the importance of a proposed SPR sensor is given in Table 9. Based on these

Fig. 3  SNR representation for

FWHM with different control
factors

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Fig. 4  SNR representation for

normalized transmitted power
with different control factors

Table 7  Analysis of variance Control factors Degree of Sum of square Mean square Contribution
(ANOVA) for FWHM with freedom
different control factors
Core diameter (µm) 2 32.54 16.27 10.00%
Length of sensing region (mm) 2 173.34 86.67 53.27%
Thickness of silver layer (nm) 2 97.08 48.54 29.83%
Thickness of ­Si3N4 layer (nm) 2 22.47 11.23 6.90%

Table 8  Analysis of variance Control factors Degree of Sum of square Mean square Contribution
(ANOVA) for normalized freedom
transmitted power with different
control factors Core diameter (µm) 2 0.034161 0.017080 21.00%
Length of sensing region (mm) 2 0.051377 0.025688 31.58%
Thickness of silver layer (nm) 2 0.077075 0.038537 47.36%
Thickness of ­Si3N4 layer (nm) 2 0.000093 0.000047 0.06%

parameters, we have a designed a fiber SPR sensor for the RI this, when we are increasing the RI of the sensing medium,
ranging from 1.33 to 1.43. The plot for normalized transmit- the resonance wavelength shifts to a higher value. The
ted power with RI of sensing medium is shown in Fig. 5a. In value of resonance wavelength for respective RI of sensing
medium is plotted in Fig. 5b and also depicted in Table 10.
The values of sensitivity, quality factor, and detection accu-
Table 9  Best selection of control parameter with Taguchi method racy which are given in Table 10 can be calculated by using
Eqs. 9, 10, and 11 respectively. Here, the maximum sensi-
S. no. Control parameter Parameter
value tivity of 6287 nm/RIU is achieved for the varying RI from
1.33 to 1.43 while the maximum quality factor and detection
1 Core diameter (µm) 600 accuracy are 873.19 RIU−1 and 87.31 respectively. As a
2 Length of sensing region (mm) 10 result, the Taguchi approach can be utilized to optimize the
3 Thickness of silver layer (nm) 50 designing parameters and can assist in designing the fiber
4 Thickness of ­Si3N4 layer (nm) 5 SPR sensor.

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Fig. 5  (a) Plot of the SPR spectra and (b) the shift of resonance wavelength for the core-Ag-Si3N4 configuration with different RI of the sensing
medium

Table 10  Performance S. no. RI of sensing Resonance Sensitivity (nm/ Quality Detection

characteristics of proposed medium wavelength (nm) RIU) factor(RIU−1) accuracy
structure for different RI of
sensing medium 1 1.33 410.3 - - -
2 1.34 425.5 1520 211.11 2.11
3 1.35 443 1635 227.08 4.54
4 1.36 463.4 1770 245.83 7.37
5 1.37 487.8 1937.5 269.09 10.76
6 1.38 517.6 2146 298.05 14.90
7 1.39 555.1 2413.33 335.18 20.11
8 1.40 604.8 2778.57 385.91 27.01
9 1.41 675.4 3313.75 460.24 36.81
10 1.42 788.8 4205.55 584.10 52.56
11 1.43 1039 6287 873.19 87.31

6 Conclusion parameters which contribute maximum normalized trans-

mitted power and minimum FWHM are 600 µm of core
In a nutshell, this study focused on the use of numerical diameter, 10 mm of the length of sensing region, 50 nm
analysis, specifically transfer matrix method (TMM) and thickness of the silver layer, and 5 nm thickness of ­Si3N4
Taguchi’s method, as an appropriate and reliable approach layer. Considering all these optimized parameters, the
for improving the control parameters of a ­Si3N4-based fiber maximum sensitivity of 6287 nm/RIU is obtained while
plasmonic sensor. Signal to noise ratio is kept smaller the the quality factor and detection accuracy are 873.19 R ­ IU−1
better (STB) for both the FWHM and the normalized trans- and 87.31 respectively. Hence, the Taguchi optimization
mitted power. Using ANOVA analysis, firstly the thickness method is strongly suggested in nanotechnology due to its
of the silver layer has the highest contribution of 47.36% ability to optimize control factors in the endeavor to design
while the thickness of ­Si3N4 has the least contribution of effective fiber SPR sensors.
0.06% for the normalized transmitted power. Secondly, on
the FWHM, the length of the sensing region has the larg- Acknowledgements The authors would like to express their gratitude
to the Department of ECE at Malaviya National Institute of Technol-
est dominant factor effect of 53.26%, while the thickness ogy, Jaipur, for providing critical support and facilities for this research
of the ­Si3N4 layer has the least dominating factor effect work.
of 6.90%. With Taguchi optimization, the best control

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