Hybrid Plasmonic Waveguide Based Platform for Refractive Index and Temperature Sensing

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 mu m to 2.2 mu 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/degrees C temperature sensitivity. The proposed sensor is suitable for next-generation on-chip biochemical sensing applications with nanoscale dimensions, low cost, and high sensitivity.

Automated summary

In this work, a nanoscale 3D hybrid plasmonic waveguide (HPWG) refractive index-cum-temperature sensor was proposed and simulated. It can be used for sensing the refractive index and temperature of aqueous analytes. Numerical simulations were performed to predict the sensitivity of the device, and the sensor was shown to be suitable for next-generation on-chip biochemical sensing applications.