Hybrid Plasmonic Waveguide Based Platform for Refractive Index and Temperature Sensing

Abstract

A nanoscale 3D hybrid plasmonic waveguide (HPWG) refractive index-cum-temperature sensor has been proposed and simulated in this work. The aqueous analyte (benzene C6H6) sensing is possible over the wavelength range from 1.18∼μ m to 2.2∼μ m. A well-known refractive index (RI) sensing method (or wavelength interrogation) is considered for the proposed Si-TiO2-SiO2-Au nanostructure. The sensor design includes, titanium dioxide (TiO2) layer deposited over the silicon dioxide to enhance the overall sensitivity of the HPWG sensor. The finite element method (FEM) based 3D-numerical simulations are performed for an IR band signal, predicting 1022.75 nm/RIU device sensitivity and 2.95 nm/°C temperature sensitivity. The proposed sensor is suitable for next-generation on-chip biochemical sensing applications with nanoscale dimensions, low cost, and high sensitivity. © 1989-2012 IEEE.