Optical intensity and sensor figures of merit of insulator-metal-insulator and metal-insulator-metal thin-film stacks

We calculate and analyze the quality factors Q and the intensity and sensor figures of merit (IFoM and SFoM) evaluating the intensity and sensor coupled with the leakage of modes of the reflection flux and of the plane-wave and locally excited transmitted fluxes of insulator-metal-insulator (IMI) and metal-insulator-metal (MIM) 2D planar thin-film stacks, here glass-Ti-Au-air and glass-Ti-Au-SiO2-Au-air respectively. These thin film stacks sustain a single surface plasmon polariton (SPP) and multiple planar wave guide (PWG) modes. The Q, IFoM and SFoM of the 3D dispersion graph (in-plane wave vector kρ/k0 ∈[0, 1.52]/frequency ω ∈[0.5,2.7] eV/observable) are calculated and analyzed along 2D cuts where either the in-plane wave vector kρ/k0 or the frequency ω are varied the other independent variables being kept fixed.