A Mach–Zehnder Interferometer Refractive Index Sensor on a Spoof Surface Plasmon Polariton Waveguide

Abstract

In this paper, we experimentally and numerically confirm a planar Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) device for sensing dielectric samples based on a spoof surface plasmon polariton (SSPP) waveguide. The MZI system is constructed using two different ultrathin transmission lines with distinct dispersion units supporting SSPPs. After SSPPs propagate a certain propagation distance, a resonant dip is formed at a specific frequency due to destructive interference, whose displacement enables the SSPP to be modulated by one of the MZI arms loaded with dielectric samples. We investigate how the variations in the permittivity and thickness of dielectric samples affect the sensibility. Through an error analysis between the experimental measurements and numerical calculations, it is demonstrated that the plasmonic sensor based on the MZI has a high precision. The proposed technique is compact and robust and paves a versatile route toward the chip-scale functional devices in microwave circuits.