Angular surface plasmon resonance-based sensor with a silver nanocomposite layer for effective water pollution detection

For sensing various samples of polluted water and various sodium chloride concentrations using an angular surface plasmon resonance (ASPR), we have introduced a conventional structure and a hybrid heterostructure in the current research. The suggested structures are composed of silver metal, dielectric layers, silver nanocomposite, and a sensing medium. The reflectance spectra of all structures in the visible region were obtained through the utilization of the transfer matrix method by using the angular interrogation method depending on the Kretschmann configuration. Through our findings, five substrate parameters have been optimized to attain the utmost level of sensitivity across all structures: the thickness of Ag-metal, the type and thickness of dielectric materials, the host material type and the volume fraction of nanoparticles for the nanocomposite layer. In this regard, the suggested sensor provides excellent performance with a sensitivity of 448.1°/RIU\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$/\text{RIU}$$\end{document}, signal-to-noise ratio of 0.787, sensor resolution of 0.284°, and figure of merit of 78.766 RIU−1. Therefore, we believe that the introduced design of our ASPR sensor presents a good candidate for an accurate and efficient detection of low concentrations of contaminated water and sodium chloride as well.