Surface Phonon Resonance Assisted Refractive Index Sensing in Mid-Infrared Wavelength Range

We propose a highly sensitive refractive index sensor based on the surface phonon resonance (SPhR) in the mid-IR spectral range. Surface phonon polaritons (SPhPs) are formed on polar dielectrics such as SiC in mid-IR wavelength range and can be excited with the help of a metallic grating at specific wavelength termed as resonance wavelength. The resonance wavelength of SPhP is significantly affected by the refractive index of the analyte medium placed over the grating. This forms the basis of a refractive index sensor. We have numerically evaluated the performance of such an SPhP-based refractive index sensor by using rigorous coupled wave analysis (RCWA) in terms of sensitivity, detection accuracy, and quality factor. The quality factor and detection accuracy of the sensor formed on SiC substrate are found to be 225.1 RIU^–1 (inverse of refractive index unit) and 6.75, respectively. We have also extended the study for other polar dielectric substrates cBN and GaN and observed considerable enhancement in the performance of the sensor for GaN. The values of quality factor and detection accuracy could be increased to 361.2 RIU^–1 and 10.84, respectively, by using GaN substrate. The proposed sensor finds applications in refractive index sensing of liquids and biomolecules having refractive index in the range 1.33–1.36.