1. Refractive index sensing using a light trapping cavity: A theoretical study.
- Author
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Kumar, Samir and Das, Ritwick
- Subjects
- *
REFRACTIVE index , *POLARIZATION (Electricity) , *WAVELENGTHS , *PLASMONS (Physics) , *EXCITON theory - Abstract
A refractive index sensor is proposed comprising one-dimensional photonic bandgap geometry in conjunction with a thin metal film. The refractive index sensor is based on the cavity mode formed in a thin cavity layer sandwiched between multilayers of SiO2/Ta2O5 and a metal film. The cavity structure traps light through excitation of the cavity mode and hence sharp resonance minima (maxima) are obtained in the reflection (transmission) spectrum. Our theoretical model investigates the impact of cavity thickness, nature of plasmon-active metal, the angle of incidence, and polarization of light on the sensitivity. It is found that the resonance wavelength increases linearly as the analyte refractive index increases. Additionally, the enhancement in the interaction between the analyte medium and micro-cavity mode-field further enhances the sensitivity of the proposed sensor. It is observed that as the cavity thickness increases from 200 nm to 900 nm, the sensitivity increases from 200 nm/RIU to 350 nm/RIU. The performance of the proposed photonic crystal based sensor exhibits strong polarization and angular dependences. Also, the sharp micro-cavity resonance results in improved detection accuracy as compared to surface plasmon resonance based schemes. The proposed structure advantage is an alternative to the conventional surface plasmon refractive index sensor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2018
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