Refractive index sensing with plasmonic metamaterials

PHYS 38

Teri W. Odom, todom@northwestern.edu, Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208
This talk will discuss how optical quality gold films, perforated with arrays of 100-nm holes, can function as a new and scalable platform for ultra-sensitive refractive index (RI) sensing. These plasmonic metamaterials can be generated over areas greater than ten square centimeters using soft interference lithography followed by PEEL to produce free-standing nanohole array films. When exposed to increased RI environments, these gold nanohole arrays exhibit sharp spectral features that change in relative amplitude as well as shift to longer wavelengths. In addition, gold nanohole arrays patterned into microscale patches exhibit ultra-narrow resonances (< 12 nm FWHM), which can result in RI sensitivities in the visible region exceeding those reported for metallic nanoparticles.