title: Surface wave sensors based on nanometric layers of strongly absorbing materials.
abstract: We demonstrate the excitation of guided modes in thin layers of strongly absorbing chalcogenide glasses. These modes are similar to surface plasmon polaritons in terms of resonance width and shift with changes in the permittivity of the surrounding medium. We exploit these characteristics to demonstrate a high sensitivity chalcogenide glass refractive index sensor that outperforms gold surface plasmon resonance sensors at short wavelengths in the visible. This demonstration opens a new range of possibilities for sensing using different materials.
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanophotonics, FOM Institute AMOLF, c/o Philips Research Laboratories, High Tech Campus 4, 5656 AE Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Yichen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Arnold
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Offermans
authors.forename: Jaime
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gómez Rivas
mesh_terms: D000042:Absorption; D018011:Chalcogens / Q000737:chemistry*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005898:Glass / Q000737:chemistry*; D008027:Light; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014159:Transducers
chemical_list: D018011:Chalcogens