Degeneracy breaking of Wood's anomaly for enhanced refractive index sensing

TL;DR

This paper presents a highly sensitive refractive index sensor using nanostructured gold slot-antennas that leverage Wood's anomaly degeneracy breaking, achieving figures of merit close to fundamental limits.

Contribution

The authors demonstrate a novel RI sensing method combining narrowband resonance with Wood's anomaly degeneracy breaking, tunable by structural modifications.

Findings

FOMs of 140-210 in telecom range, near fundamental limits

Sensitive detection to analyte layer depth

Tunable wavelength and RI range through structural design

Abstract

We introduce an ultrasensitive detection technique for refractive index (RI) sensing based on an array of nanometer scale slot-antennas milled in a thin gold layer using a single lithographic step. Our experimental figures of merit (FOMs) of 140-210 in the telecom wavelength range approach the fundamental limit for standard propagating SPR sensors (~250).The underlying mechanism enabling this is the combination of a narrowband resonance of the slot-antennas with degeneracy breaking of Wood anomaly under slightly non-perpendicular illumination. In addition, we explore the sensitivity of the device to the depth of the analyte layer. This concept can be easily tuned to any desired wavelength and RI range by modifying the slot dimensions and the array spacing, thus rendering it highly useful for numerous sensing applications.