Depolying Tunable Metal-Shell/Dielectric Core Nanorod Arrays as the Virtually Perfect Absorber in the Near-Infrared Regime.

In this paper, the coupled Ag-shell/dielectric-core nanorod for sensor application is investigated and the different dielectric core plasmonic metamaterial is adopted in our design. The operational principle is based on the concept of combining the lattice resonance, localized surface plasmon resonance (SPR), and cavity plasmon resonance modes within the nanostructure. The underlying mechanisms are investigated numerically by using the three-dimensional finite element method and the numerical results of coupled solid Ag nanorods are included for comparison. The characteristic absorptance/reflectance peaks/dips have been demonstrated to be induced by different plasmonic modes that could lead to different responses required for plasmonic sensors. A nearly perfect absorptance and an approximate zero reflectance with a sharp band linewidth are obtained from the proposed system, when operated as an SPR sensor with the sensitivity and figure of merit of 757.58 nm/RIU (RIU is the refractive index unit) and 50.51 (RIU-1), respectively. Our work provides a promising method for the future developments of more advanced metamaterial absorber for chemical sensing, thermal radiation tailoring, field enhanced spectroscopy, and general filtering applications.

Introduction

Plasmonic perfect absorbers (PPAs) have fascinated increasing attention in the field of nanophotonic devices because of their unusual capacity of absorbing and enhancing electromagnetic (EM) waves to the nanometer-scale.[1] It can be applied to different fields, such as resonators,[2] refractive index (RI) sensors,[3] nanoantennas,[4] plasmonic solar cells,[5] biosensing,[6−10] and absorbers.[11,12] Narrow-band plasmonic absorbers using surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effects are widely used in thermal radiation manipulation,[13,14] detection, and sensors.[15−18] On the basis of plasmonic nanostructures (PNSs) with the properties of gap plasmon resonance (GPR),[19] cavity plasmon resonance (CPR),[20] and metal–dielectric–metal structure,[11,12] perfect plasmonic absorbers[21,22] can be achieved in the visible, infrared regime, and other EM regimes.

Recently, researchers have made many advancing efforts on PPAs to achieve narrow band absorption[11] for plasmonic sensing applications. The narrow spectrum bandwidth is required in medical sensing applications, for example the monitoring of chemical reactions,[23] the measurement of gas concentrations,[24] as well as the detection of biomolecules.[25] However, the general PPAs exhibit complicated structure, and the resonance wavelength is at a fixed wavelength, and this limits the diversification of their deployment. The various approaches which have been reported to narrow the band linewidth giving sharp spectrum feature[12,26,27] are plasmonic gap resonance,[28] surface lattice resonance,[29] and magnetic dipole resonance.[30] There are several metastructures which have been studied for the purpose of absorption and they are based on gap resonance;[31,32] however, these literature studies did not report on the design of sensors having perfect absorptance and zero reflectance properties. PPAs need to be designed with simple structure and tunable in the infrared regime if they are to be successfully implemented in sensor applications.

The large band linewidth of plasmon resonances causes strong radiative damping in metals, which is a major problem because it reduces the sensitivity and hence lowering the quality factor (Q-factor) of the sensor. An effective way to overcome this drawback is to couple the plasmonic effects to a system with a narrow resonance. There are several methods to narrow band tunability of PPAs, for example, the use of stacked graphene-dielectric sheet,[31] applying phase-change material (Ge2Sb2Te5),[32] and deploying microelectromechanical system.[33] For practical applications, a large intensity variation of the absorbed or reflected light at a certain wavelength is desired, that is, sharp peaks/dips of absorptance/reflectance with a large modulation depth are required. In contrast to the above mentioned techniques, we proposed a dual band and tunability PPA consisting of coupled Ag-shell/dielectric-core (ASDC) nanorod array arranged in a square lattice. In our design, the PPA is made tunable by physically modifying the PPA’s material and geometry. Each resonance obtained from our proposed PPA has excellent correlation with respect to geometrical and material parameters, and furthermore, it shows excellent tunability for each resonant wavelength (λres). In the proposed structure, an open cavity is introduced in ASDC nanorods such that it is accessible to the surrounding medium, and this makes the ASDC nanorods an attractive RI sensor. The ASDC nanorods and the bottom Ag thin film layer provide an optical response of SPR and CPR, and the positive–negative charge pairs will induce an electromotive force on the metal surface, thus causing an effective coupled mode which supports a nearly perfect absorptance and an approximate zero reflectance. ASDC nanorods that are placed at a Bragg distance above a metal mirror (i.e., 100 nm Ag bottom layer) form a Fabry–Pérot nanocavity, and they constitute a coupled photonic–plasmonic system. The influences of structure and material parameters on the sensing performance are investigated by using the three-dimensional (3-D) finite element method (FEM). In addition, we put to use the strong localized enhancement of the EM wave in the gap and cavity regions in the ASDC nanorods, and we examine the RI infrared sensing performance. It is found that the absorptance bandwidth can be changed by varying the dielectric core in the Ag-shell nanorods, and a nearly perfect absorptance together with an approximate zero reflectance with a sharp band linewidth are obtained from the proposed system. The proposed structure can be operated as SPR sensors where the sensitivity and figure of merit (FOM) of 757.58 nm/RIU and 50.51 (RIU–1), respectively, are observed. This narrow band linewidth and perfect absorptance properties are required in sensing and filtering applications.[34]

Simulation Method and Models

To analyze the proposed plasmonic system, 3-D FEM is performed using a commercially available software package (COMSOL multiphysics). Because of the symmetry of the structures, a plane wave polarized in x-axis is used as the incident light at normal incidence from the top surface. Periodic boundary conditions are considered in x- and y-directions, and perfectly matching layers are applied along the z direction. The Ag permittivity data cited in ref (35) is used. The absorptance (A) is calculated as 1 – reflectance (R) – transmittance (T), with transmittance being nearly zero in the infrared realm (i.e., the working region of the proposed PPA) because of the thickness of the bottom Ag film is thicker than the skin depth in the infrared region, the transmittance (T) channel is prevented, and the absorptance is reduced to 1 – R. The sensing capability of the SPR sensor is usually defined by the following definitions of sensitivity (S) and FOM.[3,4]where Δλ is the corresponding central wavelength shift of the resonant dips and Δn is the difference of the RI. fwhm is the full width at half maximum of the SPR spectrum, and it is defined as the corresponding λres width at half percentage of the reflectance dip. The Q factor can be calculated as the ratio of peak resonance wavelength (λres) and the full width at half maximum, that is, Q = λres/fwhm.[36]

The coupled ASDC nanorod array is arranged in a square lattice. Figure depicts a truncated view of the periodic arrays of the coupled ASDC nanorods. The proposed structure consists of periodic arrays of coupled ASDC nanorods placed directly on the surface of a uniform Ag film. The value of the incident EM wave is fixed at |0| = 1 V/m. The closely spaced ASDC nanorods have an outer radius (R) and inner radius (r) of 80 and 70 nm, thickness (t = R – r) of 10 nm, and gap distance (g) of 20 nm. The filling medium in ASDC is set to air (ε = 1.00) and silica (SiO2). The lattice constant (a) of the arrays is 470 nm, and the bottom silver film has a thickness (s) of 100 nm. In addition, the whole structure is placed on a silica substrate (i.e., glass), and the surrounding material is assumed to be air or n, where n is the RI of the surrounding medium. The RI of silica is calculated through the Sellmeier equation.[37] All materials are assumed to be nonmagnetic (i.e., μ = μ0).

Figure 1

Truncated view of the periodic arrays of coupled ASDC nanorods placed directly on the surface of a uniform Ag film. The unit cell repeats in the x and y direction forming a square array with periodicity a. The origin [(x, y, z) = (0, 0, 0)] of the coordinate system is positioned in the middle plane of the simulation zone. The closely spaced ASDC nanorods have an outer radius (R) and an inner radius (r) of 80 and 70 nm, thickness (t = R – r) of 10 nm, and gap distance (g) of 20 nm. The filling relative permittivity (ε) in ASDC is set to air (ε = 1.00) and silica, respectively. The lattice constant (a) of the arrays is 470 nm, and the bottom silver film has a thickness (s) of 100 nm. In addition, the whole structure is placed on a silica substrate, and the surrounding material is assumed to be air or n, where n is the RI of the surrounding medium.

Thanks to the rapid advances in the fabrication technique of nanophotonic structures, the proposed PNSs are compatible with the current fabrication technology such as a manufacturing based on secondary electron lithography generated by ion beam milling[38−42] and other manufacturing processes.[43] Superior shell-to-shell uniformity with a well-ordered feature is established.[40,42] Spacer lithography can construct uniformly patterned nanoshell arrays with sub-10 nm thicknesses.[40,44]

Results and Discussion

The EM wave coupling is mediated by diffraction in the plane of the ASDC nanorod arrays, which are composed of Ag-shell nanorods and dielectric-core nanorods in a single structure. Upon the illumination of the ASDC nanorod arrays with UV–visible–infrared light, the hybrid modes are excited and exhibited as sharp spectral peaks/dips in the optical absorptance/reflectance. These peaks/dips are associated with a manifestation of light trapping in the ASDC nanorod array system. The absorptance/reflectance spectra ascribe to the lattice resonance and the coupling from the nanochannel waveguide to the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) mode. Figure a,b shows the absorptance/reflectance spectra of the coupled ASDC nanorods with different dielectric core, that is, air and silica, where air and silica are the testing core materials for the purpose of comparison and they can be replaced by other materials. The top end of our proposed ASDC nanorod with air or silica core is opened to the surrounding ambience and it can be realized by using the fabrication processes as described in detail in ref (40). The solid Ag nanorods, as counterpart for a solid or nonshell case, are also investigated for the purpose of comparison. Because of the symmetry of the proposed structures, polarization-insensitive absorptance/reflectance can be easily realized.

Figure 2

(a) Absorptance and (b) reflectance spectra of the coupled ASDC nanorods with different dielectric core (air and silica). The results include the data obtained for solid Ag nanorods which serves as a counterpart (solid case) for the purpose of comparison.

As displayed in Figure a,b, there is one peak/dip with the maximum absorptance and minimum reflectance of 60.524 and 39.463% at λres of 955 nm for the solid case, and there are two peaks/dips with the maximum absorptance and minimum reflectance of 93.656 and 6.323% at λres of 855 nm for ASDC with air core and 98.489 and 1.496% at λres of 910 nm for ASDC with silica core for peak/dip 1, respectively. For cases involving ASDC nanorods, the absorptance/reflectance curves show two significant peaks/dips with extremely high/small values. They represent two distinct types of resonances, that is, the two narrow peaks/dips are result from the surface lattice resonance and gap and cavity plasmonic resonance, respectively.[12] The number of absorptance/reflectance peak/dip is dependent on the resonant modes in the PNS, that is, only the SPR mode occurs in solid case, and for cases involving ASDC nanorods both the SPR and CPR modes occur simultaneously. It is noteworthy to point out that the corresponding peaks/dips of the absorptance/reflectance spectra have the same λres. As the dielectric core in the ASDC cases is changed from air to silica, the λres is red-shifted, which is in accord with previous literature studies.[45] These resonances peaks and dips are attributed to (1) the vertical GPR mode among incident EM wave, Ag/ASDC nanorod arrays and the bottom Ag thin film (i.e., 100 nm thickness of Ag film on the silica substrate) and (2) the transverse CPR mode between the incident EM wave and the dielectric cores in the Ag shells. The vertical Fabry–Pérot cavities of the ASDC nanorods waveguide are formed by the dielectric cores, and the air gaps between metal nanorods behave as the dielectric interfaces.[3] With the help of the Ag film of the ASDC nanorods and the bottom Ag thin film, the vertical GPR and transverse CPR modes can be well-excited. As is well-known, the λres of PNSs is dependent on the changing RI of the surrounding dielectric medium, a characteristic that has been widely used for sensing applications. The case for ASDC with ε = 1.00 (air) can be regarded as an SPR sensor, where the change of ε in the cavity of the ASDC nanorods (e.g., ASDC nanorods with silica core) causes a spectral shift and a large near-field intensity variation.

To better understand the above-mentioned phenomena, we calculate the electric field intensity (||, V/m, Figure a), magnetic field intensity (||, A/m, Figure b), absorbed power density (Qe, W/m2, Figure c,d), and the surface charge density distributions (coulomb/m2, Figure e) at the corresponding λres extracted from peak 1 for the solid case and peak 1 and peak 2 for the ASDC case with silica core. From Figure , it is evident that the distribution profiles of each resonance have good correspondence with each PNS structure. It is obvious that the distribution profiles of ||, ||, and Qe are strongly confined in the gap region (i.e., gap enhancement) at peak 1 and peak 2 for all the cases, while only the case of ASDCs with silica core at peak 1 shows an enhanced distribution profile of ||, ||, and Qe around their outer sides (i.e., edge enhancement). The gap enhancement profiles indicate that the SPPs (i.e., GPR modes) were stimulated by the incident EM waves coupled with the Ag/ASDC nanorods and the bottom Ag thin film.[46,47] The localized distribution profiles of ||, ||, and Qe around the Ag MNPs, show that Peak 1 was induced by the constructive interference, and this has enhanced the Ag MNP absorptance.[48,49] The distribution profiles of ||, ||, and Qe for the case of ASDC with silica core at peak 2 is localized between the Ag MNPs and the Ag film, which indicates a stronger gap plasmon mode occurring between the gap of Ag MNPs and also between the Ag MNPs and bottom Ag film. They govern the absorptance and reflectance,[33,46] hence resulting in stronger gap enhancement than that of the other cases.

Figure 3

(a) Electric field intensity (||, V/m), (b) magnetic field intensity (||, A/m), absorbed power density (Qe, W/m2) in (c) x–y sectional plane and (d) x–z sectional plane, and (e) surface charge density (Coulomb/m2) distributions at the corresponding λres extracted from peak 1 and peak 2 of the solid case and the ASDC case with silica core.

The mechanism of these distributions profiles in Figure a–d can be explained by the surface charge density distributions, as shown in Figure e. The surface current on the metal surface could be enhanced by the positive–negative charge pairs and they induced the electromotive force. The surface charge pairs of the solid case at peak 1 (λres = 955 nm) shows the same sign with an aggregation of (+ +) and (− −) charges at the opposite sides of the Ag nanorods, and there also is a weaker distribution of (+ +) (− −) on the surface of the bottom Ag thin film. These surface charges exhibit a typical dipole-like charge pattern, whose resonance is governed by the GPR mode. For the ASDC with silica core at peak 1 (λres = 910 nm), the charge pairs distribute strongly and uniformly in the form of (+ −) (+ −) on the rims and on the surface of the Ag-shell nanorods, and (− −) (+ +) distribution is observed on the surface of the bottom Ag thin film. There is also a strong dipole-like charge pattern on the surface of inner/outer rims and the bottom, which is governed by the vertical GPR mode. This gives rise to a stronger dipolar effect and enhances the field pattern around the gap and edge regions. Besides the GPR mode occurring on the MNP-dielectric interface, the SPP waves are also included in the light–electron interactions which happens between the incident EM waves and the dielectric cores (or cavities) region. This produces a strong coupling between the incident light and the electrons on the inner and outer Ag-shell walls, hence bringing about the transverse CPR mode in the nanocavities.[48,50] A straightforward qualitative understanding to this is that the inner electric field in the ASDC is screened by the inner Ag-shell wall itself while the electric field skin effect makes its coupling to the outer Ag-shell wall dominant. As for the ASDC with silica core at peak 2 (λres = 1152 nm), the charge pairs distribute in the form of (− −) (+ +) at the opposite sides of Ag-shell nanorods and (+ +) (− −) on the surface of the bottom Ag thin film. In this case, the distribution of the GPR mode is larger than that of the CPR mode and this is due to the surface charge density in the gap region being denser than that of the lateral sides. This can be verified by the distribution profiles of ||, ||, and Qe, which show stronger field patterns in the gap region than those of the cases obtained from peak 1. This implies that the eigenmodes of peak 1 originate mainly from hybrid plasmon mode of the neighboring Ag-shell wall, which is caused by their strong mutual inductance and capacitive coupling but not from the individual ring resonator.[16] Its near perfect absorption and approximately zero reflectance utilizes the Ohmic loss in the metal of the ASDC case. The resonance on the surface and in the cavity of the ASDC can be tuned by changing the geometric parameters of the structure, and this will be discussed latter.

These lattice resonances can be tailored over a wide spectral range by changing the array lattice constant (i.e., period).[11] The lattice constant, a, indicates the density of the ASDC nanorods in the period arrays along x- and y-axis, and it has a significant influence on the absorptance/reflectance spectra. To investigate the influence of the lattice constant, a, the absorptance/reflectance spectra for the case of ASDC (with silica core) nanorod arrays with a values in the range of [360, 370, 380, 400, 470, 500] nm were examined, see Figure a,b. As can be seen that the peak 1 has a noticeable blue shift with a stable magnitude of absorptance/reflectance as a is set in the range of [360, 370, 380, 400, and 470] nm, whereas the absorptance/reflectance have a slight blue shift and a decreasing (increasing) magnitude of absorptance (reflectance) as a is at 500 nm, indicating that the stronger coupling effect occurred as a in the range of [360, 370, 380, 400, and 470] nm. Note that the peak 2 and dip 2 of all cases possess the resonance wavelength around λres = 1150 nm.

Figure 4

(a) Absorptance and (b) reflectance spectra for the case of ASDC (with silica core) nanorod arrays with different lattice constant, a = [360, 370, 380, 400, 470, and 500] nm. The other parameters are the same as the ASDC (with silica core) used in Figure .

The absorptance and reflectance spectra can be also tuned by t, h, R, and r, respectively. To better understand both the characteristics of the GPR and CPR modes, the effects of the thickness (t = R – r) of the Ag-shell nanorods, outer radius (R), inner radius (r), and the height (h) of the ASDC nanorods on the absorptance/reflectance spectra are examined. The results of varying shell-thickness t in ASDC nanorods are shown in Figure a,b, respectively. The interaction between incident EM wave and ASDC nanorods could result in the splitting of SPR modes that are hybridized from an outer Ag-shell surface GPR mode and an inner Ag-shell surface CPR mode. The behavior of absorptance/reflectance spectra ascribed by varying Ag-shell thicknesses originates from capacitive coupling of the induced surface charges at the side wall of the ASDC nanorod gaps. As the thickness of the ASDCs increases from 8 to 13 nm, the λres is blue-shifted, which is consistent with previous studies.[51] As the outer dimensions of ASDC nanorods remain intact, the λres is sensitive to the thickness of the Ag nanoshell (i.e., t = R – r), which blue-shifts from 940 to 820 nm for the case of peak/dip 1 and from 1220 to 1050 nm for the case of peak/dip 2, as the thickness is increased from 8 to 13 nm. The stronger CPR can be obtained from increasing the transverse cavity resonance using smaller t (e.g., t = 8, 9 and 10 nm) for peak/dip 1 while increasing the transverse cavity resonance using larger t (e.g., t = 11, 12 and 13 nm) for peak/dip 2. The λres is blue-shifted with decreasing cavity size in ASDC nanorods. This implies that, by adopting with a proper size of Ag shell-thickness, one can carve out a cavity region to generate a contour PPA with tailored absorptance/reflectance spectra at the desired λres. The key lies in the combination of the PNS with the photonic cavity in ASDC nanorods. The cavity in ASDC nanorods dramatically influences the resonance performance in PPA.

Figure 5

(a) Absorptance and (b) reflectance spectra for the case of ASDC (with silica core) nanorod arrays with different shell-thickness of t = [8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13] nm. The other parameters are the same as the ASDC (with silica core) used in Figure .

The absorptance/reflectance spectra for the case of ASDC (with silica core) nanorod arrays with varying outer radius (R), inner radius (r), and height (h) are investigated as shown in Figures and 7, respectively. As it is shown in Figures and 7, different cavity dimensions along transverse and vertical directions are demonstrated to be induced by different plasmonic modes that could lead to different responses required for plasmonic sensors. Being cavity in ASDC nanorods, the cavity channel can provide inner resonant modes with a localized electric field confinement far below the Abbe diffraction limit.[40] The λres red-shifts with the increasing R, r (i.e., increasing the transverse cavity volume), and h (i.e., increasing the vertical cavity volume). The varying R, r, and h would yield a change of the cavity volume in ASDC and result in the change of the surface charge density on the Ag-shell surface, which is related to the number of positive–negative charge pairs, that is, varying electron density distributed on the inner and outer Ag-shell of the ASDC,[51] thus forming a strong-coupled mode which favors the near perfect absorption with proper cavity volume in the ASDC nanorods. In particular, the strong-coupled modes induce efficient broad band absorptance and reflectance, whose spectral width and position can be manipulated by changing ASDC nanorods radius (R–r) and height (h). This suggests that the CPR with respect to the cavity volume of ASDC nanorods can be affected by the coupling from R, r, and h. As the Ag-shell thickness of ASDC nanorods remains intact, the λres red-shifts from 820 to 1020 nm with the increasing R(r) in the range of [60(50), 70(60), 80(70), 90(80), and 100(90)] (Figure a,b) and from 850 to 1000 nm with the increasing h in the range of [ 80, 90, 100, 110, 120, and 130] (Figure a,b) for peak/dip 1 cases. It is worth mentioning that the performance of absorptance/reflectance spectra are significantly affected by the size of R(r) for the peak/dip 1 cases and by the size of h for peak/dip 2 cases. In Figure a,b, the trend of absorptance/reflectance spectra is quite different between peak/dip 1 and 2. There is a maximum/minimum at h = 110 nm for the peak/dip 1, whereas the peak/dip 2 is monotone growing/declining with the increasing h. The discrepancies in the observed trends are attributable to the difference of coupling effect arising from the vertical CPR corresponding to the incident wavelength of EM wave and the length (i.e., h) of nanocavity channels in ASDC nanorods. Here, the band linewidth of the coupled photonic–plasmonic resonance is associated with the ASDC with cavity, which is linked to the Q-factor because of the modified photonic density of states and hence the modified radiative damping rate. From the Figures –7, we observe that the more the coupling effect on the SPRs and CPRs, the more absorptance and less reflectance of the ASDC PPA exhibits. This implies that the resonance arising from the ASDC PPA can be easily tuned by adjusting its geometrical parameters.

Figure 6

(a) Absorptance and (b) reflectance spectra for the case of ASDC (with silica core) nanorod arrays with the outer radius of R = [60, 70, 80, 90, and 100] nm and the inner radius of r = [50, 60, 70, 80, and 90] nm. The thickness of ASDC is kept at t = 10 nm. The other parameters are the same as the ASDC (with silica core) used in Figure .

Figure 7

(a) Absorptance and (b) reflectance spectra for the case of ASDC (with silica core) nanorod arrays with different height of h = [80, 90, 100, 110, 120, and 130] nm. The other parameters are the same as the ASDC (with silica core) used in Figure .

For the nanoscale sensor applications, the ambient medium is referred to as the variation of RI. The testing sample surrounds the ASDC nanorods, and the testing medium is usually in liquid or gaseous states.[48,49] Calculating the absorptance and reflectance spectra for the proposed structure, we investigated the ASDC (with silica core) nanorod arrays, to the environmental RI perturbations. The sensitivity of the sensor is dependent on the variation of the environmental RI surrounding the PNSs. To verify the sensitivity of the proposed ASDC (with silica core) nanorod array, the ambient RI of air (n = 1.00), water (n = 1.33), and phosphate buffer saline[52] are used, and the corresponding absorptance/reflectance spectra are depicted in Figure a,b. A noticeable red shift in the position of the λres from 910 to 1160 nm is observed with the increasing RI of the surrounding ambience. These features in the absorptance/reflectance spectra indicate the superior sensing properties. The sensitivity of RI sensors depends critically on the local electric field intensity around the ASDC nanorods and the overlap of hot spots with the RI of the surrounding ambience. This is shown in Figure a,b, where the absorptance/reflectance spectra of the metasurface varies in response to the environmental perturbations. In Figure a,b, the two groups of resonant peaks and dips are both highly sensitive, although the different plasmonic modes produce the different λres responses. The physical inference for these red shifts is due to the effective increase in capacitance of the resonant structure attributed to the increase in the RI of the analyte.[10] The trend of peak (dip) of the absorptance (reflectance) spectra shows a decreasing (increasing) with an increasing RI of the surrounding ambience. This is caused by the lesser SPR and CPR effects when higher RI of the surrounding medium is introduced into the PPA system. According to the absorptance and reflectance spectra at peak/dip 1, the calculated sensitivity, FOM, and Q factor can be achieved to the values of 757.58 nm/RIU, 50.51 (RIU–1), and 60.67, respectively. Noting that the near perfect absorptance and near zero reflectance resonant with a sharp band linewidth narrower corresponding to their SPR and CPR modes in Figure a,b are upright to each other and well-separated in wavelengths and in spatial distributions. Indeed, we find that the absorbing bands of peak 1 in Figure a displays good Lorentzian line shapes, and they are well-matched to the couple mode theory.[10]

Figure 8

(a) Absorptance and (b) reflectance spectra of ASDC (silica core) nanorod arrays with the surrounding RI of air (n = 1.00), water (n = 1.33) and phosphate buffer saline. A comparison of the (c) electric field intensity distributions (at cross-section across the ASDC nanorods center at z = 0 nm and y = 90 × 10–9 nm, respectively) and (d) surface charge density (including the 3-D profiles of electric force lines (pink lines) and energy flows (cyan arrows) of the proposed ASDC (silica core) nanorod arrays exposed to air (n = 1.00) and a surrounding medium water (n = 1.33). The other parameters are the same as the ASDC (with silica core) used in Figure .

In an infrared absorptance (reflectance) spectra, the peaks (dips) correspond to the molecular groups which absorb (reflect) the infrared light at specific wavelengths, that is, it regulates the dipole moment by all (or some) number of its vibration normal coordinates, and it will surely result in some considerable infrared absorption bands. Therefore, all sensors have to be examined with respect to their sensitivity on marginal variations in the surrounding medium. The next sets of data are derived from the testing of the responsiveness of the proposed ASDC nanorod array under marginal conditions of the test sample (surrounding medium of the ASDC nanorod array). Figure c,d shows a comparison of the electric field intensity distributions (at the cross section across the ASDC nanorods center at z = 0 nm and y = 90 × 10–9 nm, respectively) and the surface charge density (including the 3-D profiles of electric force lines (pink lines) and the energy flows (cyan arrows) of the proposed ASDC (with silica core) nanorod arrays exposed to air (n = 1.00) and a surrounding medium of RI, n = 1.33 (water). After the ASDC nanorods adsorbed by the surrounding RI medium, a remarkable gap enhancement and localization of electric field intensity distributions can be found along the x axis because of the x-polarization of the incident EM wave. The electric force lines and energy flow arrows of n = 1.33 (Figure d) exhibit an irregular profile compared to that of n = 1.00 (Figure c), when the environmental RI perturbation influences the ASDC nanorods system. The proposed ASDC structure has a larger overspread capacity of the hot spots and the ambient media, which is approachable to the variation of surrounding medium, and would be applied not only for very sensitive RI sensing but also for improving most monolayer sensitivity, making it a greatly attractive PPA structure. More potentially, the localized electric field enhancement of the lattice resonance mode combined with the SPR and CPR modes is concentrated on the ASDC nanorod surface thus easily attainable for the measuring target biomolecules in the near infrared region.

Conclusions

We have proposed a novel approach to the design of PPA which could support both tunability and sensitivity for highly sensitive RI sensor application. The influence of structure and material parameters, the SPRs and CPRs on the sensing performance have been investigated by 3-D FEM. The mechanisms of absorptance and reflectance spectra have been demonstrated to be induced by the different plasmonic modes generated on the periodic ASDC nanorods grating. In our design, the PPA is tuned by changing or modifying the device material and geometry. The proposed ASDC PNSs with a Fabry–Pérot nanocavity is shown to provide a means for reducing the band linewidth of the resonances, and therefore ameliorating the sensing properties of PNSs. The optical spectrum can be changed by varying the dielectric core of the ASDC, and a near perfect absorptance and an approximate zero reflectance having a sharp band linewidth can be obtained from the proposed system. The proposed ASDC PNS can be operated as SPR sensor with the sensitivity and FOM of 757.58 nm/RIU and 50.51 (RIU–1), respectively. In addition, the open cavity of our proposed ASDC nanorod system is accessible to the surrounding medium, and this makes it attractive for RI sensor and filtering applications.