Well-confined surface plasmon polaritons for sensing applications in the near-infrared

The surface plasmon polariton (SPP) dispersion at the interface between a dielectric half-space and a layered metallodielectric metamaterial is investigated. By varying the material constituants, it is shown that the SPP resonance frequency can be readily shifted to the near-IR. Through numerical simulations, the validity domain of homogenization and the effects of the finite number of layers in the metamaterial are studied. It is found that as few as N=2 periods are sufficient for practical operation. These results reveal the potential of employing metallodielectric stacks for sensing applications in the near-IR regime.