Aluminum Nitride Grating Based Plasmonic Sensor Utilizing Enhanced Absorption

Abstract

Aluminum nitride gratings based plasmonic sensor is proposed for refractive index sensing application in near infrared spectral region. The absorbance analysis is performed utilizing rigorous coupled wave analysis (RCWA). The performance parameters are calculated based on the absorbance variation with wavelength. Further, the effect of grating parameters on absorbance properties of the proposed structure is also demonstrated. A sensitivity of 480 nm/RIU is calculated with significant average detection accuracy of 0.028 nm−1. Owning to a large absorbance (~98%), the proposed structure can also be used as a perfect absorber for various optoelectronics applications.