Generation of a Conjoint Surface Plasmon by an Infrared Nano‐antenna Array

Thomas Allsop*, Chengbo Mou*, Ronald Neal, Vojtěch Kundrát, Changle Wang, Kyriacos Kalli, David Webb, Xiaoping Liu, Paul Davey, Philip Culverhouse, Juan Diego Ania-Castañón

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Localized surface plasmons (LSP) excited by optical fields have many potential applications resulting from their ability in detecting ultra‐small, ambient refractive index change. Current methods using surface nano‐patterning by means of lithography have given rise to LSP of limited propagation and interaction lengths, meaning that practical applications remain challenging. This paper describes a new all‐optical method of generating LSP by means of a carefully fabricated low dimensional nano‐structured material by using a direct‐write photochemical lithography. It is shown that the resulting array of localized surface plasmons combine or “Conjoin” to have an unprecedented large interaction length, via coupled evanescent fields, giving rise to superior spectral sensitivities; several orders of magnitude better than those quoted elsewhere and reaching 6×103 nm/RIU in the aqueous regime and 104 nm/RIU in the gaseous regime. Numerical modeling was performed that showed this design of plasmonic platform is capable of producing sensitivities of 105‐106 nm/RIU. We believe the results achieved in this investigation show that a unique conjoint surface plasmon operational mode will significantly impact areas of interest, such as single molecular dynamics, drug delivery systems etc.
Original languageEnglish
Article number2000003
JournalAdvanced Photonics Research
Volume2
Issue number2
Early online date27 Oct 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2021

Bibliographical note

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Funding: This work was financially supported by joint grants EP/J010413 and EP/J010391 for Aston University and the University of Plymouth along with the University of Hull prosperity partnership: EP/R004900/1 from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. European Commission Marie Skłodowska-Curie COFUND Action MULTIPLY (project 713694)

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Generation of a Conjoint Surface Plasmon by an Infrared Nano‐antenna Array'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this