Study of the Effect of Nematic Order Degradation in Liquid Crystal-Based Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensors

This paper presents a new analysis of optical sensors based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) phenomenon and nematic liquid crystal (LC) sensitive layer in the partially ordered state. In particular, the paper studies the influence of degradation in the LC ordering state on the behavior of the plasmon resonance parameters. The degradation in the LC ordering is represented by the order parameter. The explicit treatment of the order parameter is critical when trying to differentiate between a change in alignment and a degradation of alignment in LC in response to the presence of an external stimulus in LC based sensors. When a reduction in ordering occurs, ignoring the order parameter can produce misleading results. This sensor has potential applications in chemical and biological systems. The paper presents a tracking method for the state of alignment and degree of ordering of the partially ordered LC film. This can be achieved via the SPR propagation constant and the critical angle at the interface between a metal and an LC film