Study on the symmetrical metal-cladding waveguide-enhanced quality factor

Abstract

The quality factor (Q value) is a vital parameter for evaluating the sensitivity feature of optical sensors. A comparative study of Q values is carried out by analyzing the absorption peaks of the attenuated total reflection in the surface plasmon resonance, long-range surface plasmon resonance, metal clad leaky waveguide, and symmetrical metal-cladding waveguide. The calculation results show that the full width at half maximum of the ultrahigh-order modes, which are excited in the SMCW, can be reduced to the order of 10⁻² nm, and the corresponding Q value can be enhanced to the order of 10⁴, which is far beyond those of other sensing structures.

Keywords:

• quality factor
• symmetrical metal-cladding waveguide
• optical sensor
• full width at half maximum

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors acknowledge the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 61367003]; the National Basic Research Programmer of China [grant number 2013CBA01703]; the Scientific research fund of Xinjing University, China [grant number SA0720023].