Patent ID: 7460238
Filing Date: 2008-12-02
Classification: B82Y,G01N,G02B

Abstract:
1. A surface plasmon resonance sensor for an ambient medium characterized by a refractive index, the surface plasmon resonance sensor comprising: an antiguiding waveguide comprising: a core characterized by a refractive index; and a reflector surrounding the core, the reflector having an external surface and being characterized by a band gap and a refractive index higher than the refractive index of the core; and a coating deposited on the external surface of the core, the coating defining with the ambient medium a coating/ambient medium interface suitable to support surface plasmons; wherein, in operation: the coating is in contact with the ambient medium; the antiguiding waveguide is supplied with an electromagnetic radiation to (a) propagate a mode for sensing having an effective refractive index lower than the refractive index of the core and higher than the refractive index of the ambient medium and (b) produce surface plasmons at the coating/ambient medium interface; the mode for sensing is phase-matched with the surface plasmons at a wavelength within the band gap; and a variation of the refractive index of the ambient medium results in a variation of loss of the sensing mode to detect a feature of the ambient medium.