Comparative analysis of waveguide plasmon–polariton refractometers based on excitation of surface, symmetric, and antisymmetric plasmon modes

We present the results of a numerical study of three waveguide refractometer configurations based on surface plasmon resonance: a refractometer without a buffer layer based on exciting a surface plasmon mode, and refractometers with a buffer layer based on exciting symmetric and antisymmetric plasmon modes. It is found that the best metrological characteristics are inherent in the refractometer based on the symmetric plasmon mode: the cumulative advantage in spectral sensitivity and width of the resonance dip attains two orders of magnitude as compared to the refractometer based on antisymmetric plasmon mode and one order of magnitude as compared to the refractometer without a buffer layer. For measuring local variations of the refractive index in a thin layer the advantage of using the symmetric plasmon mode is less expressed and amounts to nearly 20 and 6 times, respectively. It is shown that higher metrological characteristics of the refractometer based on symmetric plasmon mode are achieved at the expense of its compactness: the length of the sensitive segment in such a refractometer may exceed that of the refractometers without the buffer layer and those based on the antisymmetric mode by three orders of magnitude. The minimal length of the sensitive segment is possible in the refractometer based on the antisymmetric plasmon mode, which, however, possesses the worst metrological characteristics. As to the fabrication simplicity, the scheme without the buffer layer seems most attractive. This scheme occupies the intermediate position between the refractometers based on symmetric and antisymmetric plasmon modes both in metrological parameters and in the length of the sensitive segment.