Rectangular and sinusoidal Au-Grating as plasmonic sensor: A comparative study

Sensitivity of surface plasmon resonance sensor (SPRS) is mainly associated to efficient excitation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) waves. In this work, effect of 50 nm thick Au film designed as rectangular and sinusoidal grating structure on glass substrate has been explored by finite element analysis (FEA) using COMSOL Multiphysics 5.3a. The comparison between the rectangular and sinusoidal gratings for efficient sensing has been presented here. Slit width (SW) for grating device has been optimized by applying far-field and near-field analysis while periodicity of grating structure is kept constant. Far field transmission spectra for both devices have been analyzed by illuminating the grating device through excitation port from the substrate side. Resonance wavelength (RW) dips for plasmonic grating device has been examined in each transmission spectrum for different values of refractive indices (RI). The sensitivity of plasmonic grating device has been calculated by measuring the shift in resonance wavelength by varying refractive index of analyte. The sinusoidal grating supporting fundamental plasmonic mode is found to be more sensitive (717 nm/RIU) as compared to simple rectangular grating (693 nm/RIU). Being highly sensitive to minute change in refractive index, such devices are efficiently applicable in real life.