High-Index Semiconductor Nanoparticles as Low-Loss Alternatives to Gold for Refractive Index Sensing

TL;DR

This paper compares gold and high-index semiconductor nanoparticles for refractive index sensing, highlighting that semiconductors offer low-loss, efficient, and directionally scattering alternatives to traditional gold-based sensors.

Contribution

It demonstrates that high-index dielectric nanoparticles can achieve comparable sensitivity to gold while significantly reducing thermal losses and enabling advanced scattering phenomena.

Findings

Semiconductors support electric and magnetic Mie resonances.

High-index nanoparticles exhibit low-loss, scattering-driven extinction.

Directional scattering enables new sensing functionalities.

Abstract

This study presents a comparative numerical analysis of Gold (Au) and high-index semiconductor nanoparticles for refractive index sensing in the visible range. While Au nanoparticles demonstrate high sensitivity ($\approx 150$ nm per refractive index unit), their performance is constrained by ohmic losses. In contrast, high-index dielectrics are shown to exhibit comparable extinction efficiencies driven exclusively by scattering, thereby minimizing thermal losses. Multipolar decomposition reveals that semiconductors support simultaneous electric and magnetic Mie resonances, the interference of which enables directional scattering phenomena unattainable in small metallic particles. These findings suggest that high-index nanostructures offer a robust, low-loss alternative to plasmonics for advanced sensing applications.