Metal‐insulator‐metal waveguide‐based plasmonic sensors: Fantasy or truth—A critical review
Muhammad Ali Butt
Abstract
Abstract There is a hysteria over plasmonic sensors based on metal‐insulator‐metal (MIM) waveguides and researchers around the globe are extensively studying these devices over the past two decades for diverse sensing applications for instance temperature, refractive index, pressure, and biochemical applications among others. The sensors based on MIM waveguides (WGs) are compact and offer unmatchable sensitivity as assessed with dielectric waveguide‐based sensors along with an extraordinary figure of merits ( FOM ). However, the major concern is that most of these sensors are only numerically simulated/analyzed and there is no experimental demonstration accessible to date. Therefore, in this mini‐review, these highly alluring sensor designs are critically analyzed to identify if they are practically feasible or just a fantasy among the scientific community.