Surface plasmon resonance and sensors using phase detection

Abstract

The thesis focuses on theoretical analysis of the phase properties of the surface plasmon polaritons and the Bloch surface waves and also on experimental realizations of sensors based on the phase shift detection. Both types of the surface waves are excited on planar structures (plasmonic structures or photonic crystals) by a method of attenuated total reflection. Since the point of interest is the phase of light, the basic approach in measurements is interferometry applied in the spectral, angular or also spatial domain. Four different sensors are realized and demonstrated experimentally in sensing of relative humidity, refractive index or concentration. The results are accompanied with theoretical analysis based on the transfer matrix formalism that can be effectively used for multilayered structures. The sensing performance is evaluated in terms of sensitivity and figure of merit. Potential applications of the proposed senors are discussed, such as sensing of gaseous and aqueous analytes.