Demonstration of an ultrasensitive refractive-index plasmonic sensor by enabling its quadrupole resonance in phase interrogation

Opt Lett. 2015 Nov 15;40(22):5152-5. doi: 10.1364/OL.40.005152.

Abstract

We present an ultrasensitive plasmonic sensing system by introducing a nanostructured X-shaped plasmonic sensor (XPS) and measuring its localized optical properties in phase interrogation. Our tailored XPS exhibits two major resonant modes of a low-order dipole and a high-order quadrupole, between which the quadrupole resonance allows an ultrahigh sensitivity, due to its higher quality factor. Furthermore, we design an in-house common-path phase-interrogation system, in contrast to conventional wavelength-interrogation methods, to achieve greater sensing capability. The experimental measurement shows that the sensing resolution of the XPS reaches 1.15×10(-6) RIU, not only two orders of magnitude greater than the result of the controlled extinction measurement (i.e., 9.90×10(-5) RIU), but also superior than current reported plasmonic sensors.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Glass
  • Gold
  • Nanotechnology
  • Refractometry / instrumentation*
  • Surface Plasmon Resonance / instrumentation*

Substances

  • Gold