Relation between noise and resolution in integrated optical refractometric sensing

The paper presents a general theory for integrated optical (IO) sensing devices of the refractometric type, which relates noise and device parameters to the resolution of the measurand induced modal index changes. The theory is applied for length optimization of a number of integrated optical sensing devices. The results show the crucial importance of loss for the maximum attainable resolution of a given sensor. The presented theory is illustrated with numerical examples.