High-performance nanosensors based on plasmonic Fano-like interference: probing refractive index with individual nanorice and nanobelts

Quantitative Insights into a Plasmonic Ruler Equation from the Perspective of Enhanced Near Field

The plasmonic shift of resonance wavelength induced by near-field coupling enables one to measure nanoscale distances optically. Empirically, the well-known ruler equation correlating plasmon shift with interparticle spacing was proposed. Though it has been widely used in analyzing simulation and experimental outcomes, little is known about the underlying physical mechanism of the characteristic exponential form of the plasmon ruler equation and the universal decay constant therein. In this work, we attempt to decrypt these from the perspective of plasmon near-field enhancement. Based on an analytical quasi-normal mode formula for plasmon shifts, we proved that the exponential decaying electric field is the critical reason that results in the exponential form of the plasmon ruler equation and quantitatively, we found that the universal decay constant in the plasmon ruler equation actually reflects the range of the enhanced near field. This work hopefully helps to deepen the understanding of the mechanism of light-matter interaction in corresponding plasmonic processes.

Multiparameter Sensing Based on Tunable Fano Resonances in MIM Waveguide Structure with Square-Ring and Triangular Cavities

In this paper, a metal–insulator–metal (MIM) surface plasmon waveguide structure is proposed and numerically investigated. It is composed of a square-ring cavity with a silver baffle, an isosceles triangle cavity, and a bus waveguide with a silver baffle. The results show that the structure can produce triple Fano resonances that can be independently tuned by changing the structural parameters. The detection of refractive indexes at different positions in the structure was also accomplished, with a maximum sensitivity of 2259.56 nm/RIU. On the basis of this, the simultaneous measurement of multiple parameters (plasma concentration and glucose concentration) was performed. The numerical simulation results are beneficial to the applications of MIM waveguide structure in nanosensing and biosensing with time-sharing or simultaneous measurement of multiple parameters.

Simultaneous Nanolocal Polymer and In Situ Readout Unit Placement in Mesoporous Separation Layers

Bioinspired solid-state nanopores and nanochannels have attracted interest in the last two decades, as they are envisioned to advance future sensing, energy conversion, and separation concepts. Although much effort has been made regarding functionalization of these materials, multifunctionality and accurate positioning of functionalities with nanoscale precision still remain challenging. However, this precision is necessary to meet transport performance and complexity of natural pores in living systems, which are often based on nonequilibrium states and compartmentalization. In this work, a nanolocal functionalization and simultaneous localized sensing strategy inside a filtering mesoporous film using precisely placed plasmonic metal nanoparticles inside mesoporous films with pore accessibility control is demonstrated. A single layer of gold nanoparticles is incorporated into mesoporous thin films with precise spatial control along the nanoscale layer thickness. The local surface plasmon resonance is applied to induce a photopolymerization leading to a nanoscopic polymer shell around the particles and thus nanolocal polymer placement inside the mesoporous material. As near-field modes are sensitive to the dielectric properties of their surrounding, the in situ sensing capability is demonstrated using UV-vis spectroscopy. It is demonstrated that the sensing sensitivity only slightly decreases upon functionalization. The presented nanolocal placement of responsive functional polymers into nanopores offers a simultaneous filtering and nanoscopic readout function. Such a nanoscale local control is envisioned to have a strong impact onto the development of new transport and sensor concepts, especially as the system can be developed into higher complexity using different metal nanoparticles and additional design of mesoporous film filtering properties.

M. M. de Almeida J, Pastoriza-Santos I, C. C. Coelho L. Advances in Plasmonic Sensing at the NIR-A Review

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) are among the most common and powerful label-free refractive index-based biosensing techniques available nowadays. Focusing on LSPR sensors, their performance is highly dependent on the size, shape, and nature of the nanomaterial employed. Indeed, the tailoring of those parameters allows the development of LSPR sensors with a tunable wavelength range between the ultra-violet (UV) and near infra-red (NIR). Furthermore, dealing with LSPR along optical fiber technology, with their low attenuation coefficients at NIR, allow for the possibility to create ultra-sensitive and long-range sensing networks to be deployed in a variety of both biological and chemical sensors. This work provides a detailed review of the key science underpinning such systems as well as recent progress in the development of several LSPR-based biosensors in the NIR wavelengths, including an overview of the LSPR phenomena along recent developments in the field of nanomaterials and nanostructure development towards NIR sensing. The review ends with a consideration of key advances in terms of nanostructure characteristics for LSPR sensing and prospects for future research and advances in this field.

Surface-Nanostructured Single Silver Nanowire: A New One-Dimensional Microscale Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Interface

One-dimensional microscale surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-active interfaces have been intriguing as a newly emerging class of SERS interfaces compared to conventional macroscale SERS substrates. In this work, a stable surface-nanostructured single silver nanowire was fabricated. The nanostructures on the nanowire are formed by nanoscale silver crystal dots with diameters of 20-50 nm. The SERS signals of the crystal violet probe molecules adsorbed on the nanostructures are dramatically enhanced by both electromagnetic and chemical effects. The hot spots generated at the junctions of adjacent nanoscale dots yield highly efficient surface plasmon resonance. Simultaneously, the charge transfer on the atomic-scale silver cluster located at the nanostructured interface causes an enhancement similar to Raman resonance. The intensity distributions of the SERS peaks on the surface-nanostructured single nanowire are characterized by SERS mapping. It is found that, although the intensities of the SERS peaks are different, their SERS mapping images show uniform SERS enhancement distributions, whereas the noticeable SERS intensity distributions on the single smooth silver nanowire are mainly located on the two ends of the nanowire. A large number of nanoscale crystal dots along with the atomic-scale silver clusters are uniformly and densely distributed on the surface of the single roughened nanowire; these structural attributes induce a uniform and large surface plasmon resonance and charge transfer enhancements on the entire surface of the nanowire. This work indicates that the surface-nanostructured single silver nanowire, synthesized using a quite simple preparation method, performs as an excellent one-dimensional microscale SERS substrate with uniform and high enhancement characteristics, which shows high potential for applications as a new class of SERS-active substrates. Furthermore, the higher enhancement factor of the microscale SERS interfaces can be achieved by introducing other roughened nanowires to assemble a dimer and a trimer as micro-SERS substrates, which is consistent with the dark-field measurements.

Enhancing the figure of merit of refractive index sensors by magnetoplasmons in nanogratings

The sensing performance of one-dimensional magnetic nanograting based on magnetoplasmons was investigated. The predictable Kerr reversal and enhancement are achieved in our experiment. The further result shows that the shift of the Kerr null point has a linear relationship with the surrounding refractive index in a wide range. In addition, a huge figure of merit (FoM) of 1728/refractive index unit is achieved, which is 1 order of magnitude higher than the results reported. The experiment and theory confirm that the excitation of surface plasmons leads to the Kerr reversal and enhancement, resulting in a huge FoM.

Fano Resonance Enhanced Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensors Operating in Near-Infrared

In the phase-sensitivity-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensing scheme, the highest phase jump usually happens at the darkness or quasi-darkness reflection point, which results in low power for detection. To overcome such a limitation, in this paper, a waveguide-coupled SPR configuration is proposed to work at near-infrared. The coupling between surface plasmon polariton (SPP) mode and photonic waveguide (PWG) mode results in electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and asymmetric Fano resonance (FR). Near the resonance, the differential phase between p-polarized and s-polarized incident waves experience drastic variation upon change of the surrounding refractive index. More importantly, since the FR occurs at the resonance slope of SPP mode, the corresponding phase change is accompanied with relatively high reflectivity, which is essential for signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) enhancement and power consumption reduction. Phase sensitivity up to 106 deg/RIU order with a minimum SPR reflectivity higher than 20% is achieved. The proposed scheme provides an alternative approach for high-performance sensing applications using FR.

Theoretical investigation of a plasmonic substrate with multi-resonance for surface enhanced hyper-Raman scattering

Because of the unique selection rule, hyper-Raman scattering (HRS) can provide spectral information that linear Raman and infrared spectroscopy cannot obtain. However, the weak signal is the key bottleneck that restricts the application of HRS technique in study of the molecular structure, surface or interface behavior. Here, we theoretically design and investigate a kind of plasmonic substrate consisting of Ag nanorices for enhancing the HRS signal based on the electromagnetic enhancement mechanism. The Ag nanorice can excite multiple resonances at optical and near-infrared frequencies. By properly designing the structure parameters of Ag nanorice, multi- plasmon resonances with large electromagnetic field enhancements can be excited, when the "hot spots" locate on the same spatial positions and the resonance wavelengths match with the pump and the second-order Stokes beams, respectively. Assisted by the field enhancements resulting from the first- and second-longitudinal plasmon resonance of Ag nanorice, the enhancement factor of surface enhanced hyper-Raman scattering can reach as high as 5.08 × 10⁹, meaning 9 orders of magnitude enhancement over the conventional HRS without the plasmonic substrate.

Slow Wave Applications of Electromagnetically Induced Transparency in Microstrip Resonator

We report a novel guided-wave resonator that supports multiple bands of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). The platform for the spatial and spectral interference is obtained by a microstrip transmission line loaded with proximity-coupled open-circuited stubs. We show experimentally that with two microstrip open stubs, a complete destructive interference takes place leading to a single EIT band with near-unity transmission efficiency. More interestingly, the addition of a third stub results in a supplementary EIT band with a Q-factor of 147 and an effective group refractive index of 530. With the open-stub configuration, the EIT phase response can be dynamically controlled by varying the capacitance between the adjacent stubs without breaking the transmission path of the underlying electromagnetic waves. Therefore, the proposed structure is well suited for buffering and tunable phase modulation applications. Since the proposed structures are compact and fully planar, we anticipate seamless integration with low-profile high frequency electronics.

Low-cost and large-size nanoplasmonic sensor based on Fano resonances with fast response and high sensitivity

We have developed a low-cost, fast and sensitive plasmonic sensor with a large-size for easy handling. The sensor is formed by a Au nanobelt grating fabricated by soft lithography with a period of 780 nm and a width of 355 nm in an even and uniform area of ~2 × 2 cm². The sensor uses the Fano-shaped third order mode localized plasmon resonance of the Au nanobelts, which appears in the visible part of the transmission spectrum. We have found a detection resolution of 1.56 × 10^-5 refractive index units with a temporal resolution of 1 s in a sensing area of 0.75 × 0.75 mm². The high uniformity and size of the sensor permit the detection using a simple optical system, which provides the device with the potential to be used as an easy to handle, portable and disposable sensor.

Plasmonic coupled modes in metal-dielectric multilayer structures: Fano resonance and giant field enhancement

We provide an overview of Fano resonance and plasmon induced transparency (PIT) as well as on plasmons coupling in planar structures, and we discuss their application in sensing and enhanced spectroscopy. Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structures, which are known to support symmetric and anti-symmetric surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) arising from the coupling between two SPPs at the metal-insulator interfaces, exhibit anticrossing behavior of the dispersion relations arising from the coupling of the symmetric SPP and the metal/air SPP. Multilayer structures, formed by a metal film and a high-index dielectric waveguide (WG), separated by a low-index dielectric spacer layer, give narrow resonances of PIT and Fano line shapes. An optimized Fano structure shows a giant field intensity enhancement value of 10⁶ in air at the surface of the high-index dielectric WG. The calculated field enhancement factor and the figure of merit for the sensitivity of the Fano structure in air can be 10⁴ times as large as those of the conventional surface plasmon resonance and WG sensors.

Tunable dark plasmons in a metallic nanocube dimer: toward ultimate sensitivity nanoplasmonic sensors

Metallic nanoparticles can function as label-free nanosensors monitoring the local dielectric environment in their close vicinity, thanks to the localized surface plasmon resonances. The sensing figure of merit is limited by the total loss rate of the plasmon. Here, we theoretically study a silver nanocube dimer and discover for the first time a dark plasmon with its total loss rate at the lower theoretical limit. It originates from the attractive coupling of the dipolar and quadrupolar mode in the individual nanocubes. It shows an unprecedented sensitivity to the interparticle gap distance, i.e., one ångström change in the gap distance results in a shift twice as large as the peak width. The sensing figure of merit using this dark plasmon is 56-61, reaching the ultimate value limited only by the material permittivity. The field of the mode is confined mainly within the gap region which is in the extreme deep subwavelength (3.5 × 10(-6)λ0(3)) region. Besides sensing applications, the dark plasmon also shows foreseeable potential in enhanced spectroscopy, nanolasers and other nanophotonic devices.

Polarization state-based refractive index sensing with plasmonic nanostructures

Spectral-based methods are often used for label-free biosensing. However, practical implementations with plasmonic nanostructures suffer from a broad line width caused by strong radiative and nonradiative losses, and the sensing performance characterized by figure of merit is poor for these spectral-based methods. This study provides a polarization state-based method using plasmonic nanostructures to improve the sensing performance. Instead of the intensity spectrum, the polarization state of the transmitted field is monitored to analyze variations of the surrounding medium. The polarization state of incidence is strongly modified due to the excitation of surface plasmons, and the ellipticity of the transmitted field changes dramatically around plasmon resonances. Sharp resonances with line widths down to sub-nanometer are achieved by plotting the spectra of the reciprocal of ellipticity. Therefore, the sensing performance can be significantly improved, and a theoretical value of the figure of merit exceeding 1700 is achieved by using the polarization state-based sensing approach.

Nanoscopic optical rulers beyond the FRET distance limit: fundamentals and applications

In the last few decades, Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) based spectroscopy rulers have served as a key tool for the understanding of chemical and biochemical processes, even at the single molecule level. Since the FRET process originates from dipole-dipole interactions, the length scale of a FRET ruler is limited to a maximum of 10 nm. Recently, scientists have reported a nanomaterial based long-range optical ruler, where one can overcome the FRET optical ruler distance dependence limit, and which can be very useful for monitoring biological processes that occur across a greater distance than the 10 nm scale. Advancement of nanoscopic long range optical rulers in the last ten years indicate that, in addition to their long-range capability, their brightness, long lifetime, lack of blinking, and chemical stability make nanoparticle based rulers a good choice for long range optical probes. The current review discusses the basic concepts and unique light-focusing properties of plasmonic nanoparticles which are useful in the development of long range one dimensional to three dimensional optical rulers. In addition, to provide the readers with an overview of the exciting opportunities within this field, this review discusses the applications of long range rulers for monitoring biological and chemical processes. At the end, we conclude by speculating on the role of long range optical rulers in future scientific research and discuss possible problems, outlooks and future needs in the use of optical rulers for technological applications.

Gold Nanobipyramid-Directed Growth of Length-Variable Silver Nanorods with Multipolar Plasmon Resonances

We report on a method for the preparation of uniform and length-variable Ag nanorods through anisotropic Ag overgrowth on high-purity Au nanobipyramids. The rod diameters can be roughly tailored from ∼20 nm to ∼50 nm by judicious selection of differently sized Au nanobipyramids. The rod lengths can be tuned from ∼150 nm to ∼550 nm by varying the Ag precursor amount during the overgrowth process and/or by anisotropic shortening through mild oxidation. The controllable aspect ratios, high purity, and high dimensional uniformity of these Ag nanorods enable the observation of Fabry-Pérot-like multipolar plasmon resonance modes in the colloidal suspensions at the ensemble level, which has so far been demonstrated only on Au nanorods prepared electrochemically with anodic aluminum oxide templates. Depending on the mode order and geometry of the Ag nanorods, the multipolar plasmon wavelengths can be readily tailored over a wide spectral range from the visible to near-infrared region. We have further elucidated the relationships between the multipolar plasmon wavelengths and the geometric dimensions of the Ag nanorods at both the ensemble and single-particle levels. Our results indicate that the Au nanobipyramid-directed, dimensionally controllable Ag nanorods will be an attractive and promising candidate for developing multipolar plasmon-based devices and applications.

Modal interference in spiky nanoshells

Near-field enhancement of the electric field by metallic nanostructures is important in non-linear optical applications such as surface enhanced Raman scattering. One approach to producing strong localization of the electric field is to couple a dark, non-radiating plasmonic mode with a broad dipolar resonator that is detectable in the far-field. However, characterizing or predicting the degree of the coupling between these modes for a complicated nanostructure can be quite challenging. Here we develop a robust method to solve the T-matrix, the matrix that predicts the scattered electric fields of the incident light, based on finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations and least square fitting algorithms. This method allows us to simultaneously calculate the T-matrix for a broad spectral range. Using this method, the coupling between the electric dipole and quadrupole modes of spiky nanoshells is evaluated. It is shown that the built-in disorder in the structure of these nanoshells allows for coupling between the dipole modes of various orientations as well as coupling between the dipole and the quadrupole modes. A coupling strength of about 5% between these modes can explain the apparent interference features observed in the single particle scattering spectrum. This effect is experimentally verified by single particle backscattering measurements of spiky nanoshells. The modal interference in disordered spiky nanoshells can explain the origin of the spectrally broad quadrupole resonances that result in strong Quadrupole Enhanced Raman Scattering (QERS) in these nanoparticles.

From Fano-like interference to superscattering with a single metallic nanodisk

Superscattering was theoretically proposed to significantly enhance the scattering cross-section of a subwavelength nanostructure, far exceeding its single-resonance limit by employing resonances of multiple plasmonic modes. By numerical simulation, we design a subwavelength nanodisk as a simple candidate to achieve superscattering. Due to the phase retardation, the subradiant mode can be excited and interact with the superradiant mode in both spatial and frequency domains. By changing the height and diameter of the nanodisk, we show high tunability of the mode interaction and evolution of the resulting spectral features from Fano-like resonance to superscattering. A model of two-driven coupled oscillators is proposed to quantitatively analyze the spectral evolution. We find that the evolution is caused by not only alignment of the resonant wavelengths of related plasmonic modes, but also reasonably high loss. We show that superscattering doubles the near-field intensity, potentially enhancing the signal 16 times for SERS and 4 times for SEIRS, and doubles the far-field intensity and decreases the peak linewidth, improving the figure of merit for plasmonic refractometric sensing. Our study provides quantitative physical insight into understanding superscattering and Fano-like resonances in a single nanoparticle.

Mode parity-controlled Fano- and Lorentz-like line shapes arising in plasmonic nanorods

We present the experimental observation of spectral lines of distinctly different shapes in the optical extinction cross-section of metallic nanorod antennas under near-normal plane wave illumination. Surface plasmon resonances of odd mode parity present Fano interference in the scattering cross-section, resulting in asymmetric spectral lines. Contrarily, modes with even parity appear as symmetric Lorentzian lines. Finite element simulations are used to verify the experimental results. The emergence of either constructive or destructive mode interference is explained with a semianalytical 1D line current model. This simple model directly explains the mode-parity dependence of the Fano-like interference. Plasmonic nanorods are widely used as half-wave optical dipole antennas. Our findings offer a perspective and theoretical framework for operating these antennas at higher-order modes.

Plasmonic Fano resonances in nanohole quadrumers for ultra-sensitive refractive index sensing

Plasmonic Fano resonances arising from electromagnetic interactions in metallic nanostructures exhibit spectral characteristics analogous to those from the electron waves in oligomer molecules. Though a great deal of research interest has been attracted to study the optical properties and explore the associated applications of metallic nanoparticle oligomers, the plasmonic response of their complementary structures--nanohole clusters--remains largely unexplored. Here we show numerically by a full-wave finite element method that a nanohole quadrumer can sustain two Fano resonances when the incident electric field is oriented along the long-axis of the quadrumer system. The underlying physical mechanisms responsible for the Fano resonance formation are revealed explicitly by spectrally deconstructing the Fano lineshape, spatially decomposing the structure configuration and mapping the electric field profile and charge distribution, which collectively demonstrate a strong mode coupling between either two antiparallel dipolar modes or dipole-quadruple modes in the nanohole quadrumer. We further show that the spectral profile of the Fano resonance including the resonance linewidth and spectral contrast can be engineered flexibly by adjusting the geometrical parameters of the nanohole cluster, including the nanohole diameter, film thickness and interhole distance. With an optimized and realistic geometrical configuration, the nanohole quadrumer system exhibits an overall sensing figure of merit up to 14.25, far surpassing the value reported for conventional nanoparticle oligomers.

Recent advances in plasmonic sensors

Plasmonic sensing has been an important multidisciplinary research field and has been extensively used in detection of trace molecules in chemistry and biology. The sensing techniques are typically based on surface-enhanced spectroscopies and surface plasmon resonances (SPRs). This review article deals with some recent advances in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensors and SPR sensors using either localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) or propagating surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). The advances discussed herein present some improvements in SERS and SPR sensing, as well as a new type of nanowire-based SPP sensor.

Trends and challenges of refractometric nanoplasmonic biosensors: a review

Motivated by potential benefits such as sensor miniaturization, multiplexing opportunities and higher sensitivities, refractometric nanoplasmonic biosensing has profiled itself in a short time span as an interesting alternative to conventional Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) biosensors. This latter conventional sensing concept has been subjected during the last decades to strong commercialization, thereby strongly leaning on well-developed thin-film surface chemistry protocols. Not surprisingly, the examples found in literature based on this sensing concept are generally characterized by extensive analytical studies of relevant clinical and diagnostic problems. In contrast, the more novel Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) alternative finds itself in a much earlier, and especially, more fundamental stage of development. Driven by new fabrication methodologies to create nanostructured substrates, published work typically focuses on the novelty of the presented material, its optical properties and its use - generally limited to a proof-of-concept - as a label-free biosensing scheme. Given the different stages of development both SPR and LSPR sensors find themselves in, it becomes apparent that providing a comparative analysis of both concepts is not a trivial task. Nevertheless, in this review we make an effort to provide an overview that illustrates the progress booked in both fields during the last five years. First, we discuss the most relevant advances in SPR biosensing, including interesting analytical applications, together with different strategies that assure improvements in performance, throughput and/or integration. Subsequently, the remaining part of this work focuses on the use of nanoplasmonic sensors for real label-free biosensing applications. First, we discuss the motivation that serves as a driving force behind this research topic, together with a brief summary that comprises the main fabrication methodologies used in this field. Next, the sensing performance of LSPR sensors is examined by analyzing different parameters that can be invoked in order to quantitatively assess their overall sensing performance. Two aspects are highlighted that turn out to be especially important when trying to maximize their sensing performance, being (1) the targeted functionalization of the electromagnetic hotspots of the nanostructures, and (2) overcoming inherent negative influence that stem from the presence of a high refractive index substrate that supports the nanostructures. Next, although few in numbers, an overview is given of the most exhaustive and diagnostically relevant LSPR sensing assays that have been recently reported in literature, followed by examples that exploit inherent LSPR characteristics in order to create highly integrated and high-throughput optical biosensors. Finally, we discuss a series of considerations that, in our opinion, should be addressed in order to bring the realization of a stand-alone LSPR biosensor with competitive levels of sensitivity, robustness and integration (when compared to a conventional SPR sensor) much closer to reality.

Ultrafast nonlinear control of progressively loaded, single plasmonic nanoantennas fabricated using helium ion milling

We demonstrate milling of partial antenna gaps and narrow conducting bridges with nanometer precision using a helium ion beam microscope. Single particle spectroscopy shows large shifts in the plasmonic mode spectrum of the milled antennas, associated with the transition from capacitive to conductive gap loading. A conducting bridge of nanometer height is found sufficient to shift the antenna from the capacitive to the conductive coupling regime, in agreement with circuit theory. Picosecond pump-probe spectroscopy reveals an enhanced nonlinear response for partially milled antennas, reaching an optimum value for an intermediate bridge height. Our results show that manipulation of the antenna load can be used to increase the nonlinear response of plasmonic antennas.

Reduced linewidth multipolar plasmon resonances in metal nanorods and related applications

Using dark-field scattering spectroscopy, we study the multipolar plasmon resonances in single crystallized silver nanorods. The lineshapes and homogenous linewidths of the surface plasmon resonances (SPRs) of different orders are analyzed and compared. The high-order resonances are found to sustain asymmetric Fano lineshapes and their linewidths are narrower than the dipolar resonance. A quantitative comparison using the finite element method reveals more than a three times reduction in the linewidth for the third order resonance, as compared with the dipolar one. These narrow linewidths result from the smaller radiative damping of the multipolar SPRs. Benefiting from the reduced damping, multipolar SPRs in nanorods are better candidates for many plasmonic applications, including increased-sensitivity single particle SPR sensors and reduced-threshold nanolasers.

Optical transport and sensing in plexcitonic nanocavities

We present a theoretical study of the optical properties of a strongly coupled metallic dimer when an ensemble of molecules is placed in the inter-particle cavity. The linking molecules are characterized by an excitonic transition which couples to the Bonding Dimer Plasmon (BDP) and the Bonding Quadrupolar Plasmon (BQP) resonances, arising from the hybridization of the dipolar and quadrupolar modes of the individual nanoparticles, respectively. As a consequence, both modes split into two coupled plasmon-exciton modes, so called plexcitons. The Charge Transfer Plasmon (CTP) resonance, involving plasmonic oscillations of the dimer as a whole, arises when the conductance of the excitonic junction is above a threshold value. The possibility of exploiting plexcitonic resonances for sensing is explored in detail. We find high sensitivity to the environment when different dielectric embedding media are considered. Contrary to standard methods, we propose a new framework for effective sensing based on the relative intensity of plexcitonic peaks.