Mid-infrared silicon metasurfaces for near-field enhancement of molecular fingerprints

Mid-infrared dielectric metasurfaces are promising fundamental building blocks for integrated sensing with high sensitivity, compositional selectivity, and low loss. We have designed and fabricated a silicon metasurface with resonance properties in the 4∼5 µm mid-infrared region and a volume enhancement of up to 9 times. Benchmark FTIR characterizations of solutions of tungsten hexacarbonyl molecules showed a detection limit of 1 mg/mL without the usage of surface enrichment treatment. We further rationalize the detection limit of the molecules-nanostructure open interface with volume field enhancement analysis. Our results show that mid-infrared silicon metasurfaces may be a suitable platform for potential integration with microfluidic for in vivo detection.