Polarization conversion-based molecular sensing using anisotropic plasmonic metasurfaces

Anisotropic media induce changes in the polarization state of transmitted and reflected light. Here we combine this effect with the refractive index sensitivity typical of plasmonic nanoparticles to experimentally demonstrate self-referenced single wavelength refractometric sensing based on polariza...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nanoscale 2016-01, Vol.8 (2), p.1576-1581
Main Authors: Verre, R, Maccaferri, N, Fleischer, K, Svedendahl, M, Odebo Länk, N, Dmitriev, A, Vavassori, P, Shvets, I. V, Käll, M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anisotropy
Conversion
Detection
Mathematical analysis
Nanoparticles
Plasmonics
Polarization
Surface chemistry
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Anisotropic media induce changes in the polarization state of transmitted and reflected light. Here we combine this effect with the refractive index sensitivity typical of plasmonic nanoparticles to experimentally demonstrate self-referenced single wavelength refractometric sensing based on polarization conversion. We fabricated anisotropic plasmonic metasurfaces composed of gold dimers and, as a proof of principle, measured the changes in the rotation of light polarization induced by biomolecular adsorption with a surface sensitivity of 0.2 ng cm −2 . We demonstrate the possibility of miniaturized sensing and we show that experimental results can be reproduced by analytical theory. Various ways to increase the sensitivity and applicability of the sensing scheme are discussed. Using polarization rotation in plasmonic dimers we demonstrate a new sensing platform with a sensitivity comparable to the best optical biosensors.
ISSN:2040-3364
2040-3372
2040-3372
DOI:10.1039/c6nr01336h