High-Resolution Plasmonic Refractive-Index Sensor Based on a Metal-Insulator-Metal Structure

A high-resolution plasmonic refractive-index sensor based on a metal-insulator-metal structure consisting of a straight bus waveguide and a resonator waveguide is proposed and numerically simulated by using the finite difference time domain method under a perfectly matched layer absorbing boundary condition. Both analytic and simulated results show that the resonant wavelengths of the sensor have a linear relationship with the refractive index of material under sensing. Based on the relationship, the refractive index of the material can be obtained from the detection of one of the resonant wavelengths. The resolution of refractive index of the nanometeric plasmonic sensor can reach as high as 10⁻⁶, giving the wavelength resolution of 0.01 nm. It could be applied to highly-resolution biological sensing.