Metamaterial plasmonic absorber for reducing the spectral shift between near- and far-field responses in surface-enhanced spectroscopy applications

• Published in: Sensors and actuators. A. Physical. 2017-11, Vol.267, p.60-69
• Main Authors: Aslan, Erdem, Aslan, Ekin, Turkmen, Mustafa, Saracoglu, Omer Galip
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Absorbers (materials); Antennas; Biosensors; Charge density; Charge distribution; Computer simulation; Configurations; Infrared absorption; Infrared analysis; Infrared radiation; Metamaterials; Molecular absorption; Molecular sensing; Nanophotonics; Plasmonic absorbers; Spectra; Spectrum analysis; Studies; Surface chemistry; Surface enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy (SEIRAS)
• ISSN: 0924-4247; 1873-3069
• DOI: 10.1016/j.sna.2017.10.006

•Analysis and realization of a novel plasmonic absorber for biosensing are presented.•Spectral characteristics and origin of resonance bands are investigated.•Proposed structure has a lower spectral shift between near- and far-field responses.•Effect of reduced spectral-shift on SEIRA spectroscopy is investigated.•Reduced spectral-shift increases the measurement performance. The spectral shift between near- and far-field responses of the plasmonic nanoantennas has negative effects on the performance of surface-enhanced spectroscopy measurements. In order to reduce these effects, we propose use of the plasmonic absorber (PA) concept that promises lower spectral-shift between the near- and far-field responses. In this context, we present the design, characterization and experimental realization of a novel PA structure which utilizes hexagonally arranged nanoantennas operating in the mid-infrared regime. Additionally, we analyze the PA device numerically and experimentally to investigate tunability of resonant modes. To reveal the absorption mechanism, we investigate the near-field distribution maps in addition to the charge and current density distributions. With the aim of comparing the proposed PA device with the conventional particle-based nanoantenna according to the amount of spectral shift between the near- and far-field peaks, we present the near- and far-field spectra of each configuration and show that PA structure exhibits significantly lower spectral-shift. Finally, we present the effect of reduced spectral-shift on the surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy through the simulations for the detection of the molecular absorption mode of a polymer and compare with the results of particle nanoantenna configuration.