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Self-assembled large-area annular cavity arrays with tunable cylindrical surface plasmons for sensing
Haibin Ni1, Ming Wang, Tianyi Shen
1Jiangsu Key Laboratory on Optoelectronic Technology, School of Physical Science and Technology, Nanjing Normal University , Nanjing 210023, China.
ACS Nano
|February 3, 2015
Summary
Researchers developed a low-cost method to create tunable annular cavity arrays supporting cylindrical surface plasmons (CSPs). These arrays show promise for plasmonic sensing and other nanophotonic applications.
Area of Science:
- Nanophotonics
- Plasmonics
- Materials Science
Background:
- Cylindrical surface plasmons (CSPs) offer unique optical properties but fabricating the required nanocoaxial structures is difficult.
- Existing methods for creating nanostructures are often costly and lack scalability.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a practical, low-cost method for fabricating large-area, highly ordered annular cavity arrays (ACAs) capable of supporting tunable CSPs.
- To demonstrate the tunability and sensing capabilities of these ACAs.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a sol-gel coassembly method combined with reactive ion etching and metal sputtering.
- Fabricated ACAs with tunable gap widths from nanometers to hundreds of nanometers on a square-centimeter scale.
- Employed finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations to analyze CSP resonances.
Main Results:
- Successfully produced highly ordered ACAs with reproducible results.
- Demonstrated CSP dips tunable across the optical range (360-1800 nm) by adjusting etching time and silver film thickness.
- Achieved high sensitivity (1505 nm/RIU) and figure of merit (9) in liquid refractive index sensing using the ACAs.
- Identified angle- and polarization-independent CSP dips for narrow-band absorption applications.
Conclusions:
- The developed method provides a scalable and cost-effective route to manufacture tunable ACAs for CSPs.
- These ACAs are highly promising for integrated plasmonic sensing arrays, SERS substrates, solar cells, nanolasers, and nanoparticle plasmonic tweezers.
- The tunability and field enhancement properties of ACAs open new avenues in nanophotonics and sensing.
