Nanoplasmonic chemical sensors

Abstract

This work considers nanoplasmonic structures applicable in chemical and biological sensing. It offers a possible classification of these structures and an overview of the state-of-the-art sensing schemes that utilize them. It starts from the basic element, an artificial plasmonic meta-atom whose electromagnetic properties can be tailored by design. Such an element can be looked upon as an optical antenna that couples propagating and surface-bound modes. A meta-atom can be observed as a fundamental building block of different plasmonic metamaterials with various levels of complexity, from 1D to 3D and with various degrees of organization, from ordered/periodic, through quasiperiodic, aperiodic to random. The general principles of operation of nanoplasmonic sensors are considered as well as the advanced contemporary plasmonic schemes that ensure ultrasensitive detection, up to the level of single molecule sensing. Some original approaches investigated in the author's laboratory are described, like the use of (nano)membranes as constitutive blocks of the sensors and different selectivity enhancement methods including the use of metal-organic frameworks and various organic membranes.