Performance evaluation of a metal-insulator-metal surface plasmon resonance optical gas sensor under the effect of Gaussian beams.

In this work, the performance of a nonconventional IR surface plasmon resonance (SPR) gas sensor structure based on the use of a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structure is studied. This MIM-based sensor structure gives enhanced performance five times better than the conventional MI SPR optical gas sensors. The performance of the SPR gas sensors is studied under the effect of oblique incident Gaussian beams with different spot sizes, and the performance enhancement of the MIM structure is confirmed for different spot sizes. The simulation technique used to generate the results is also verified by comparing them to actual experimental results available in the literature.