Sensors and Actuators B 54 (1999) 66 73

Theory and modelling of optical waveguide sensors utilising

surface plasmon resonance
J. C& tyroky a,*, J. Homola a, P.V. Lambeck b, S. Musa b, H.J.W.M. Hoekstra b,
R.D. Harris c, J.S. Wilkinson c, B. Usievich d, N.M. Lyndin d
a
Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Chaberska 57, 182 51, Prague, Czech Republic
b
MESA Research Institute, Uni6ersity of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
c
Optoelectronics Research Centre, Uni6ersity of Southampton, Southhampton, UK
d
General Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

Abstract

A theoretical analysis of the phenomenon of excitation of surface plasma waves in integrated-optical waveguide structures is
carried out. Rigorous approach to analysis of light propagation through a waveguide structure with a thin metal overlayer
supporting surface plasma waves is formulated using a bi-directional mode expansion and propagation method. It is demonstrated
that because the back-reflections in the structure are very weak and most of optical power is transmitted by only a limited number
of modes of the sensing structure, the method can be considerably simplified. 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Optical waveguides; Surface plasmon resonance; Optical sensors

1. Introduction analysis of properties of waveguide modes have been

recently used which differ mainly in the assumed com-
The use of optical waveguides in optical sensors plexity of the interaction among surface plasma waves
offers numerous advantageous features such as small (SPW) and waveguide modes.
size, ruggedness, potential for realising various optical The purpose of this paper is to analyse the phe-
functions on a single chip (integration with other opti- nomenon of excitation of SPWs in a simple integrated-
cal components), multichannel sensing etc. The first optical waveguide structure, and also to compare the
integrated optical sensors based on the principle of performance of existing modelling approaches. We
surface plasmon resonance (SPR) have been described compare here methods developed independently at four
in late eighties [1,2]. Since then, integrated optical SPR laboratories actively working in this field: MESA Re-
sensors have been intensively studied and SPR sensing search Institute of the University of Twente (UT); the
devices using slab waveguides, channel waveguides and Optoelectronics Research Centre of the University of
even more complex channel waveguide structures have Southampton (ORC); the Institute of Radio Engineer-
been developed [3 7]. As the excitation of surface ing and Electronics of the Academy of Sciences of the
plasmons in guided-wave structures is more compli- Czech Republic; (IREE), and the General Physics Insti-
cated than in bulk-optic configurations, such as in the tute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (GPI). In the
attenuated total reflection method, more sophisticated first stage, the process of excitation of a SPW in a
modelling tools are required for the design and optimi- waveguide structure is described qualitatively, based on
sation of SPR integrated-optical sensing structures. For the analysis of modal properties of waveguide modes
modelling properties of integrated-optical waveguide and SPWs. Then, a rigorous approach to the analysis
SPR sensing devices, various methods based on the of light propagation through a waveguide structure
with a metal overlayer supporting SPWs is formulated,
as an application of a bi-directional mode expansion
* Corresponding author. propagation method [8].

0925-4005/99/$ - see front matter 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 2 5 - 4 0 0 5 ( 9 8 ) 0 0 3 2 8 - 1
 J. C& tyroky et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 54 (1999) 6673 67

Fig. 1. Effective refractive indices and attenuation constants of SPWs supported by a thin gold layer. Na and Ns or ba and bs correspond to
symmetric and antisymmetric SPWs, respectively.

2. Surface plasmons boundaries of the metal layer propagating with the

propagation constants given by Eq. (1). If the metal
An SPW is a strongly localised electromagnetic sur- layer is rather thin, the two SPWs supported by a
face wave that propagates along an interface between single interface become mutually coupled, and therefore
metallic and dielectric media. Its propagation constant the eigenmodes supported by a thin metal layer depart
may be expressed [9] as:
'
from the isolated SPWs and exhibit more complex
od om properties in their propagation constants and field dis-
bSP =k0 (1) tributions. If the dielectrics on both sides of the metal
od +om
layer are identical, the field distribution of these eigen-
where k0 = 2p/l is the angular repetency (the wave modes is symmetric and antisymmetric. In contrast to
number), l is the free space wavelength, and od, om are
relative permittivities of the dielectric and metal, respec-
tively. The permittivity of a metal is generally complex,
om = o%m +iom. The surface plasmon may exist if the real
part of the permittivity of the metal is negative and
o%m B od. The surface plasma wave is a TM-polarised
(or p-polarised) wave. If the Cartesian co-ordinate sys-
tem is introduced in which x-axis is perpendicular to
the interface and the wave propagates in the z-direc-
tion, only the electromagnetic field components
Ex, Ez, and Hy are non-zero. The electromagnetic field
decreases exponentially with the distance from the in-
terface, with penetration depths [9] of:

td =
1
Im {
om + od}, tm =
1 ) !
Im

om +od ")
k0od k0 om
(2)
into the dielectric and metal, respectively. It is this
strong localisation of energy of the SPW that makes its
application for optical sensing attractive.

2.1. Surface plasma wa6es supported by a thin metal

layer

Solution of the eigenmode equation for a thin metal Fig. 2. Magnetic field distribution of an antisymmetric and symmet-
ric surface plasmons propagating along a gold film 50 nm thick
layer surrounded by two dielectric materials (see inset
surrounded with dielectrics of refractive indices ng =1.478 and na =
in Fig. 1) leads to two guided eigenmodes [10]. If the 1.40. (a) Real part (b) imaginary part (note the difference in vertical
metal layer thickness is large compared to tm, these scales). The origin of the x co-ordinate x =0 lies at the bottom
eigenmodes are basically the two SPWs localised at the dielectric-metal interface (see inset in Fig. 1).
68 J. C& tyroky et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 54 (1999) 6673

simple waveguide configuration (Fig. 3) consisting of a

(single-mode) thin-film planar waveguide with a thin
metal overlayer.
First the principle of the sensor will be elucidated in
a qualitative way, after that the performance will be
calculated, applying methods well known from inte-
grated optics for telecommunication components. The
Fig. 3. Basic structure of a waveguide SPR sensor, F1 and F2 are the light enters the system from the left as a guided mode
input and output single-mode film waveguides, S is the sensing of the monomodal waveguide section F1. Having ap-
section supporting the SPWs.
proached the transition to the sensor section S, the way
the light will continue propagating will change, because
the case of modes guided by a dielectric slab waveguide, the field of the incoming mode is no more an eigen-
the propagation constant of the antisymmetric SPW
mode of the sensor section. Accordingly, this incoming
eigenmode is larger in both real and imaginary part
mode is decomposed into all guided and radiation
than that of the symmetric SPW eigenmode. The anti-
modes of the sensing section S, power distribution
symmetric mode is sometimes referred to as a short-
among these modes being dependent on the field profi-
range SP, and the symmetric one as a long-range SP.
In a more general case of different dielectrics, these les of all modes involved in the decomposition and thus
properties are essentially preserved, which makes it on the physical structure of both sections. At the
plausible to use the terms antisymmetric and symmet- abrupt waveguide transition, a continuum of radiation
ric SP in a wider sense even for asymmetric structures. modes can be excited, too, but the power transferred to
Fig. 1 shows the dependence of the effective refrac- them will be relatively low. Power distribution among
tive index N= Re {b}/k0 and the mode loss constant the modes as well as their attenuation are strongly
b= 2105 log (e) Im {b} [dB cm 1 for b in mm 1] of dependent on the value of the parameter to be sensed,
antisymmetric and symmetric SPWs propagating along which is in this case the refractive index of the analyte.
a gold layer surrounded by two dielectrics (a doped Arriving to the next transition SF2, power of these
SiO2 with the refractive index ng =1.478, and analyte modes is partially transferred to the guided mode of the
with the refractive index na =1.4) at l = 633 nm. output section F2. It is this output power of the device
The transverse distribution of the (single) component that carries the information on the refractive index of
of the magnetic field intensity vector Hy (x) of both the analyte.
antisymmetric and symmetric plasmons (in this wider The eigenmodes of the sensing section of the waveg-
sense) supported by a gold film 50 nm thick is illus- uide SPR sensor (Fig. 4, section S) can be accurately
trated in Fig. 2. These results were calculated using the determined using a transfer matrix approach [11,12]. A
transverse resonance approach [13,11]. complication can arise when a part of the power of the
Let us note that when gradually reducing the metal radiation modes arriving at the second transition
layer thicknesses, the symmetric SPW ceases to exist as should be transferred to the guided mode of the output
a guided wave bound to the metal layer. This critical section, too. This transfer is difficult to account for in
metal layer thickness is the larger the greater is the an exact way. A good and elegant approximation of the
asymmetry of the structure. real situation can be obtained by enclosing the waveg-
uide structure between two magnetic walls that force
2.2. Modes supported by a dielectric wa6eguide with a
Hy to be zero there. This is a standard procedure used
thin metal o6erlayer
to discretise the continuous spectrum of radiation
modes of open dielectric waveguides [13]. In order to
As a model waveguiding system we will analyse a
suppress the reflections of the waves from the magnetic
wall at the substrate side, strongly absorbing layers as
shown in Fig. 4 can be used. The reflection from the
magnetic wall at the side of an analyte is negligible as
the field of all modes is very weak there. It is clearly
visible from field distribution plots in Fig. 5 discussed
below. Strictly speaking, all modes of the modified
structure in Fig. 4 are guided in the rigorous sense of
the word. However, in the following we will use the
term guided modes only for modes that are guided by
Fig. 4. Modified SPR waveguide structure enclosed between magnetic the open waveguide structure in Fig. 3, i.e. those lo-
walls. calised close to the waveguide layer.
 J. C& tyroky et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 54 (1999) 6673 69

Fig. 5. Field distribution of the lowest-order TM normal modes of the planar waveguide structure supporting SPWs. The parameters are given
in the graphs. The TM0 mode is shown only for na = 1.30 as its character is only very weakly dependent of na. Zero point of the x-co-ordinate
lies at the waveguide metal interface.

Our calculations for both model structures concern show that three or two guided TM-polarised modes
the performance of the SPR integrated optical systems exist in the metal-loaded waveguide structure, depend-
with various values of the thickness of the metal layer, ing on its parameters. The lowest mode (denoted as
namely 30, 40, 50 and 60 nm, and the refractive indices TM0) corresponds to the antisymmetric SPW with a
of the analyte na varying in the range of 1.3 1.45. In very high modal attenuation, and with a considerably
this range of parameters, the propagation constants and higher effective refractive index than the other guided
field distributions of guided modes of both waveguide modes. The next two higher order modes represent
structures in Figs. 3 and 4 will be shown to be nearly hybrid modes exhibiting both features of guided mode
identical. of a dielectric waveguide and surface plasma waves. It
We made a rigorous numerical analysis of wave should be noted that more symmetric structures and
propagation in the multilayer sensing waveguide section those with thicker metal layer support two such hybrid
using the method of transversal resonance [11 14], and modes while more asymmetric structures and those with
its results are presented in Figs. 5 and 6. The results thinner metal support only one. More specifically, for
70 J. C& tyroky et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 54 (1999) 6673

Fig. 6. Effective refractive index and propagation constant of four lowest-order modes of the sensing section S of the waveguide structure in Fig.
4 (dot-dot-dash, solid, dash, dot-dash, and short-dash lines). Squares and circles correspond to guided modes calculated for the open structure in
Fig. 3.
 J. C& tyroky et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 54 (1999) 6673 71

the lowest refractive index of an analyte of 1.30, only maintain their identity and the interaction with SPW is
the next higher mode TM1 is also guided (i.e. localised reflected by resonantly enhanced losses of the modes.
near the guiding layer, see Fig. 5a), for higher refractive The refractive index of analyte at which the modal
index of analyte na of 1.37 (Fig. 5b) and a thicker gold transformation or resonant attenuation occur depends
layer (Fig. 5df) also the third mode TM2 is guided, for on the metal layer thickness. and is the smaller the
na = 1.40 the TM2 mode is guided for both lower and higher is the metal thickness falling within between 1.39
higher gold thicknesses (Fig. 5c and f). With increasing for 30 nm thick Au layer and 1.36 for 60 nm thick Au
na the character of the TM1 mode changes from that layer. This is a consequence of the fact that the propa-
similar to the guided mode of the waveguide to that gation constant of the symmetric SPW increases with
resembling more the symmetric SPW. increasing metal layer thickness and decreases with
The dependence of the effective refractive indices and decreasing refractive index of analyte so that these two
loss coefficients of four lowest-order modes of the effects may cancel out each other.
sensing section S of the enclosed waveguide structure
(Fig. 4) on the refractive index of the analyte na are
plotted in Fig. 6. It is apparent that while the lowest-or- 3. Modelling transmission through a surface plasmon
der modethe antisymmetric surface plasmon TM0 resonance waveguide sensor
remains unaffected by the presence of the waveguide, it
is not the case of the higher-order modes. We observe For the design of amplitude waveguide based SPR
two different types of behaviour of the guided modes sensing structures, the dependence of the total optical
when varying the refractive index of analyte. For rather power transfer from the input waveguide to the output
thin metal layers (see plots for 30 and 40 nm thick gold waveguide on the refractive index of analyte needs to be
layers in Fig. 6ad), as a result of the excitation of determined. In our modelling we assumed that both the
SPW, the waveguide modes undergo modal transforma- input and output waveguide sections (denoted as F1
tion and are reduced to higher order modes when and F2 in Figs. 3 and 4) are single-mode and the input
decreasing the refractive index of analyte. In structures section is excited by its eigenmode. The task is to
with rather thick metal layers (Fig. 6e h) the modes calculate the dependence of the output power carried

Fig. 7. Dependence of the relative power transfer of the waveguide SPR sensor on the refractive index of the analyte, na, as calculated by four
laboratories.
72 J. C& tyroky et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 54 (1999) 6673

by the mode of the output waveguide on the refractive 4. Discussion and conclusions
index of the analyte, na, for values of the metal (gold)
thickness of 30, 40, 50 and 60 nm. The length of the It may be concluded from Fig. 7 that all the methods
sensing section is 2 mm, the permittivity of gold is give essentially identical results. Apparently the method
considered to be om = 11.836107 + 1.357724i at the used by IREE relying on considering a larger number
wavelength of 633 nm. The task was solved indepen- of modes (of an enclosed structure) differs from the
dently at four research laboratories (UT, ORC, IREE, other methods in the resonant regions where the power
and GPI). All the groups used, in principle, the same transfer of about and B 60 dB was determined. This
eigenmode expansion and propagation approach in the difference can be explained by a very small power
approximation of which the multiple reflections in the carried by higher-order (radiation) modes that are ne-
structure are neglected. In order to check the validity of glected in other methods. It may be objected that
this approximation, IREE used the rigorous BEP residual reflections from the magnetic walls in the en-
method [8,14] to calculate the total back-reflection in closed structure can increase the power transfer at the
the enclosed waveguide structure. It was found that the resonance significantly. To investigate this, we repeated
back reflected power was always below 30 dB, typi- the calculations for several different positions of the
cally in the range of 40 to 60 dB, without observ- walls to allow the reflected waves to combine with
able interferences while slightly changing na and thus different phases. It lead to changes in the order of a few
the propagation constants of modes. dB in the detailed shapes of the curves only at the
Neglecting multiple reflections, the power transfer power levels below : 60 dB. We can thus conclude
through the waveguide structure can be expressed by a that the results presented in Fig. 7 are accurate up to

) )
simple expression: this level.
2 That the results of UT do not differ significantly
p (L)=  a0 (L)/a0 (0) 2 = % c0p exp [ibpL] (3) from others, means that the approximation of neglect-
p
ing the power transfer to the short range SPW (TM0) is
where a0(0) and a0(L) are the complex amplitudes of justifiable. This is the consequence both of its very
the fundamental mode of the input and output wave- strong attenuation and of its very low overlap with the

& &
guide (F =F1 or F2), respectively: guided mode of the input and output waveguide sec-
tions.
E Fx,0 H Sy,p dx E Sx,pH Fy,0 dx We can thus conclude that in the systems described
c0p =
& E F
x,0 H F
y,0
&
dx E S
H
x,p
S
y,p dx
(4) here the power transfer to the asymmetrical mode and
to radiation modes can be neglected in a very good
approximation, and sensor performance can be calcu-
are the coupling coefficients of the fundamental mode lated by taking into account guided modes of the sensor
of the input and output section F and the p-th mode section only. Furthermore, some explicit conclusions
TMp of the sensing section S. Here, E Fx,0, H Fy,0 and can be drawn for the performance of the device. In all
E Sx,p, H Sy,p are the transversal components of the mode sensors there are two regions where the dynamic range
fields in the waveguide sections F and S, respectively. If of the output power is : 50 dB for a refractive index
all modes of the section S are taken into account, it change of about 0.02. Variation of the metal layer
holds: thickness causes small shifts of these regions, while also
the resolution changes somewhat. Hence the thickness
% c0p =1 (5) of the metal layer is one of the parameters suited for
p
tailoring the device to specific applications.
ORC and GPI used this approach for the simulation
of the open structure (Fig. 3) with all (i.e. either two or
three) localised modes of the sensing section S. In the
calculations performed at the UT the contribution of
the asymmetrical surface plasmon mode to the power Acknowledgements
transfer has been deliberately neglected because they
estimated it to be relatively small. Also they did not The authors would like to acknowledge the support
calculate attenuation over 60 dB because they con- of EU Environment and Climate Programme project
sidered it to be out of the scope of practical measure- BIOPTICAS (contract No. EV5V-CT92-0067, R.D.H.
ments. IREE used 15 lowest order modes of the and J.S.W.), and of the Grant Agency of the Czech
enclosed waveguide (Fig. 4). It was verified that further Republic (contracts No. 102/96/1561 and 303/96/1358,
increase in the number of modes did not lead to notable J.H. and J.C& .). The bi-directional mode expansion
changes in the results. The calculated results are plotted propagation method was developed in the framework
in Fig. 7. of the European Action COST 240.
 J. C& tyroky et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 54 (1999) 6673 73

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