Title :
Enhanced Sensitivity of Silicon-On-Insulator Surface Plasmon Interferometer With Additional Silicon Layer
Author :
Le, Khai Q. ; Bienstman, Peter
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Inf. Technol., Ghent Univ., Ghent, Belgium
fDate :
6/1/2011 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
It is theoretically found that by adding a thin silicon layer (35 nm) on top of our previously proposed surface plasmon interference (SPI) biosensor in silicon on insulator (SOI), a sensitivity enhancement of up to 2500 nm/refractive index units (RIUs) for short sensors can be obtained. At the same time, the corresponding figure of merit (FOM) is as high as 237 (RIU-1). This improvement is caused by the reduction in group index difference between the two interfering modes.
Keywords :
biosensors; elemental semiconductors; light interferometers; refractive index; silicon; silicon-on-insulator; surface plasmons; figure of merit; refractive index units; silicon-on-insulator; size 35 nm; surface plasmon interference biosensor; surface plasmon interferometer; Optical interferometry; Plasmons; Refractive index; Sensitivity; Sensors; Silicon; Surface waves; Surface plasmon interferometer; silicon-on-insulator biosensors;
Journal_Title :
Photonics Journal, IEEE
DOI :
10.1109/JPHOT.2011.2156778
