The effect of heat gain and loss on the intensity interrogation of the sensitivity of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) is investigated. SPPs are very sensitive to variations in the surrounding refractive index and can be effectively applied in optical sensing. Using a five-level medium, the sensitivity \(S_I\) is examined under varying thermal conditions represented by \(Q_e\) . It is observed that the sensitivity strongly depends on the heat operator, decay rate, Rabi frequency of the control field, and probe detuning. Under heat gain conditions, the sensitivity is increased, while heat loss reduces it. The heat loss shifts the sensitivity to negative detuning, while the heat gain shifts it to positive detuning. At a low decay rate, the sensitivity touches its maximum value, but at higher values, it decreases and becomes stable. The maximum sensitivity of \(1500\mathrm {Wm^{-2}/RIU}\) is reported against probe detuning. The results offer an efficient approach to thermally tune plasmonic sensors for chemical and environmental sensing applications.
