Conclusion
Plasmonic sensors based on MIM WGs are exceedingly attractive due to
their small footprint and can offer extremely high sensitivity which
cannot be obtained with conventional dielectric WG sensors. The triumph
of such devices remains in the straightforward, accurate, less complex,
low-cost fabrication and its compatibility with the existing platforms.
Moreover, flexible sensor designs are required where minor variations in
the geometric parameters due to fabrication imperfections should not
deteriorate its sensing performance. Hence, Dr. Butt, the author of this
paper believes that the plasmonic mode converter proposed by Ono M et
al. at NTT is valuable for the realization of such a plasmonic WG
structure, however, it is still in its infancy and entails a long way to
find alternate ways to ensure the reproducibility of such devices with
low technology demand.