A theoretical model for the temperature-dependent sensitivity of the optical sensor based on surface plasmon resonance

It is well established that the optical sensor based on the surface plasmon resonance at a metal-dielectric interface can provide very high sensitivity for many applications. It is also known that, however, this sensitivity is affected by the variation of temperature of the sensing environment, leading possibly to lower sensitivity at elevated temperatures. Here we provide a detailed theoretical model which can predict such variation of sensitivity with temperature. From the numerical results, we observe that the so-called "angular interrogation" approach seems to have the preferred stability against temperature variations. We also postulate that sensitivity gain can likely be achieved by operating the optical sensor at much lower temperatures. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.