Theory of optical sensing with Dyakonov–Tamm waves

An optical modality to sense a fluid by exploiting Dyakonov–Tamm (DT) waves was devised. In the modality, the fluid is present on both sides of the guiding interface. Theoretical analysis indicated that the angular location of the reflectance dip in a practically implementable configuration will shift if the refractive index of the fluid changes. Furthermore, the detection sensitivity will decrease as the refractive index of the fluid increases over a wide range, and should be comparable to that for sensing modalities that exploit surface-plasmon-polariton (SPP) waves. Higher sensitivities are available with DT waves than with SPP waves, and the DT-wave-based sensor should be simpler to fabricate than the SPP-wave-based sensor. Multiple DT waves are excitable at the same frequency, leading to multiple channels for more reliable sensing as well as for sensing multiple analytes simultaneously.