Numerical and analytical evaluations of the sensing sensitivity of waveguide mode in one-dimensional metallic gratings

Grating-coupled Otto configuration for hybridized surface phonon polariton excitation for local refractive index sensitivity enhancement

We demonstrate numerically through rigorous coupled wave analysis (RCWA) that replacing the prism in the Otto configuration with gratings enables us to excite and control different modes and field patterns of surface phonon polaritons (SPhPs) through the incident wavelength and height of the Otto spacing layer. This modified Otto configuration provides us the following multiple modes, namely, SPhP mode, Fabry-Pérot (FP) cavity resonance, dielectric waveguide grating resonance (DWGR) and hybridized between different combinations of the above mentioned modes. We show that this modified grating-coupled Otto configuration has a highly confined field pattern within the structure, making it more sensitive to local refractive index changes on the SiC surface. The hybridized surface phonon polariton modes also provide a stronger field enhancement compared to conventional pure mode excitation.

Unveiling the correlation between nanometer-thick molecular monolayer sensitivity and near-field enhancement and localization in coupled plasmonic oligomers

Metal nanoclusters, sometimes called metamolecules or plasmonic oligomers, exhibit interesting optical properties such as Fano resonances and optical chirality. These properties promise a variety of practical applications, particularly in ultrasensitive biochemical sensing. Here we investigate experimentally the sensitivities of plasmonic pentamers and quadrumers to the adsorption of self-assembled nanometer-thick alkanethiol monolayers. The monolayer sensitivity of such oligomers is found to be significantly higher than that of single plasmonic nanoparticles and depends on the nanocluster arrangement, constituent nanoparticle shape, and the plasmon resonance wavelength. Together with full-wave numerical simulation results and the electromagnetic perturbation theory, we unveil a direct correlation between the sensitivity and the near-field intensity enhancement and spatial localization in the plasmonic "hot" spots generated in each nanocluster. Our observation is beyond conventional considerations (such as optimizing nanoparticle geometry or narrowing resonance line width) for improving the sensing performance of metal nanoclusters-based biosensors and opens the possibilities of using plasmonic nanoclusters for single-molecule detection and identification.

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.

Ultrahigh refractive index sensing performance of plasmonic quadrupole resonances in gold nanoparticles

The refractive index sensing properties of plasmonic resonances in gold nanoparticles (nanorods and nanobipyramids) are investigated through numerical simulations. We find that the quadruple resonance in both nanoparticles shows much higher sensing figure of merit (FOM) than its dipolar counterpart, which is attributed mainly to the reduction in resonance linewidth. More importantly, our results predict that at the same sensing wavelength, the sensing FOM of the quadrupole mode can be significantly boosted from 3.9 for gold nanorods to 7.4 for gold nanobipyramids due to the geometry-dependent resonance linewidth, revealing a useful strategy for optimizing the sensing performance of metal nanoparticles.