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 sensitivit y for many applications. It is also known that, however, this sensitivity i s affected by the variation of temperature of the sensing environment, lead ing possibly to lower sensitivity at elevated temperatures. Here we provide a detailed theoretical model which can predict such variation of sensitivi ty with temperature. From the numerical results, we observe that the so-cal led "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 temperatu res. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.