Theoretical spectroscopic scan of the sensitivity of asymmetric slab waveguide sensors

Abstract

An extensive theoretical analysis is carried out to investigate the variation of the sensitivity of optical slab waveguide sensors with the wavelength of the guided wave. We consider a three-layer waveguide as an optical sensor. The sensitivity for both polarizations of light: s-polarized light (TE) and p-polarized light (TM), is derived using the characteristic equation of the structure. The dispersion of the materials is taken into account to study the sensitivity spectroscopic scan over the near IR-range from 1.2–2 µm. It is found that an optimum wavelength exists for each guiding layer thickness and this optimum value increases linearly with the thickness of the guiding layer.