Characteristics of the Surface Plasmon–Polariton Resonance in a Metal Grating, as a Sensitive Element of Refractive Index Change

Abstract

The resonant excitation of surface plasmon–polariton waves in metal gratings with rectangular and sinusoidal relief was studied. The main characteristics of the resonant excitation of a surface plasmon–polariton wave were obtained using analytical methods due to the fact that the resonance is excited at a grating thickness much smaller than a wavelength (1.064 µm). It is shown that the obtained results are very close to those calculated using numerical methods, e.g., Rigorous Coupled Wave Approach (RCWA). There is a small difference in the numerical data defined by both methods. The difference between the parameters for the two types of gratings is small. New analytical relationships of angular and spectral sensitivities with the change of the refractive index of the medium were obtained, depending on the grating period and the angle of incidence of the light beam. An analytical relationship between the spectral and angular widths of the resonant curves, at full width at half maximum, was determined.