Polarization conversion-based molecular sensing using anisotropic plasmonic metasurfaces
Journal article, 2016

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.

Author

Ruggero Verre

Chalmers, Physics, Bionanophotonics

N. Maccaferri

Chalmers, Physics, Bionanophotonics

CIC nanoGUNE

K. Fleischer

Trinity College Dublin

Mikael Svedendahl

Chalmers, Physics, Bionanophotonics

Nils Odebo Länk

Chalmers, Physics, Bionanophotonics

Alexander Dmitriev

Chalmers, Physics, Bionanophotonics

Paolo Vavassori

CIC nanoGUNE

Basque Foundation for Science (Ikerbasque)

I. V. Shvets

Trinity College Dublin

Mikael Käll

Chalmers, Physics, Bionanophotonics

Nanoscale

2040-3364 (ISSN) 2040-3372 (eISSN)

Vol. 8 20 10576-10581

Subject Categories

Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics

DOI

10.1039/c6nr01336h

More information

Latest update

7/27/2018