Analysis and Design of Surface Plasmon Resonance Waveguide for Sensing Application

A surface plasmon resonance waveguide sensor operating in the visible wavelength range is presented for refractive index-based sensing. The silver material is used because of its chemical stability and its strong electromagnetic fields on surface of the nanoparticle. The simulation and modeling of surface plasmon resonance sensor are discussed. The aluminum oxide surface coating material improves the resonance of the sensor because of its stable material properties in optical and chemical application. The three modes of the sensor discussed here are transfer electric, transfer magnetic and the surface plasmon waveguide mode. The effective index value of 1.5178 is observed for the surface plasmon mode of the SPR waveguide sensor. The attenuation loss of 21 dB/cm is obtained at visible wavelength. The sensitivity when averaged for two analyte refractive index is 354 nm/refractive index unit (RIU). The proposed surface plasmons resonance sensor is used as refractive index-based sensor for environmental and chemical monitoring. This proposed work can be used to sense analyte refractive index based on the variation of the change in the resonant wavelength.