Development of a Sensing Device for Detecting Refractive Index

Changes by Using a Plasmonic Resonator

Salah E. El-Zohary

, Hiroyuki Okamoto

, Masanobu Haraguchi

, and Toshihiro Okamoto

Department of Systems and Control Engineering Anan National College of Technology,

Anan, Tokushima 774-0017, Japan Email: okamoto@anan-nct.ac.jp

Department of Optical Science and Technology, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Tokushima,
Tokushima 770-8506, Japan
AbstractThe authors present a sensing device for detecting
refractive index changes by using a plasmonic resonator. The
detection performance of the device has been numerically
evaluated by the nite-difference time-domain method. The
device can detect refractive index changes of 10 to the negative
sixth power if a light with the wavelength of 633 nm is
used as excitation source, theoretically. We have fabricated the
plasmonic square resonator and evaluated it.
Index TermsDetecting refractive index changes, sensing
device, plasmonic resonator.
I. INTRODUCTION
Measuring the refractive indices of chemicals and food
products are utilized for managing a quality of these products
in the eld of industry. The density and concentration of
mixtures can be measured by detecting a refractive index
change of the product such as chemicals. The refractive index
measuring system has very important roles in the eld of
industry. Recently, the detection of micro changes of the
refractive index have been required for managing a quality
of products. Therefore, the refractive index measurement
system with a high accuracy are needed. The detection limit
of refractive index changes of existing system is 10 to the
negative fth power. And furthermore, the setup of existing
system is complicated. To date, in order to rise the accuracy
of the system, the accuracy of the optical devices that are
used in the system has been improved. However, this method
cannot rise the accuracy of the system greatly. Other methods
for rising the detection accuracy of a micro change of refrac-
tive index should be considered. Surface plasmon resonance
are often used for biosensing and gas detection [1][3].
Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) can be also used as a
sensor. Plasmonic resonators have been investigated by many
researchers [4][16]. Plasmonic resonators using whispering
gallery modes have drawn attention because these structures
can be made in a small footprint. Plasmonic resonators are
easily inuenced in the surrounding environment. Therefore,
characteristics of the plasmonic resonator are shifted by
changes of the refractive index of the surroundings. The
size of plasmonic resonators is in the order of micrometers.
The device using plasmonic resonator for detecting a micro
change of the refractive index can be developed in the order
of micrometers.
In this paper, we propose the system using the plasmonic
resonator for detecting a micro change of the refractive index.
Using the nite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method, we
have numerically evaluated the detection accuracy of the
refractive index change of the method using the plasmonic
resonator. The plasmonic resonator for detecting a micro
change of the refractive index is fabricated and evaluated.
II. SIMULATIONS
We have numerically evaluated the plasmonic resonator
structure by the FDTD method. The FDTD simulations
are performed using Meep (which stands for MIT Electro-
magnetic Equation Propagation), a freely available software
package [17]. Meep has been used by several groups for
investigating the characteristics of plasmonic devices [18],
[19]. Figures 1(a) and (b) show schematics of the plasmonic
square resonator with a trench structure used in the FDTD
simulations, for the x-y plane view and the y-z plane view,
respectively. The refractive index of the substrate is set
to 1.45, which is close to that of the quartz glass. The
permittivity of silver is given by the Drude model as
() =

2
(
2
+ )
, (1)
where

is the relative permittivity at innite frequency,

is the plasma frequency, and is the collision frequency;

these parameters are set to 6.0, 1.5 10
16
rad/s, and 7.73
10
13
rad/s, respectively [20]. The width and depth of the
waveguide and the racetrack resonator are set to 100 nm and
500 nm, respectively. The gap between the waveguide and
the racetrack resonator is 100 nm. The resonator is 2000 nm
square.
A. Wavelength characteristics of the plasmonic square res-
onator
We have evaluated the wavelength characteristics of the
plasmonic square resonator. Figure 2 shows the transmission
intensities of the plasmonic square resonator as functions
of wavelength. The solid and dotted lines correspond to
the transmission intensities of the refractive index near the
resonator = 1.00 and 1.01, respectively, The light is incident
at the input port [denoted by Input in Fig. 1(a)]. The trans-
mission intensity is detected at the transmission [denoted by
Transmission in Fig. 1(a)] port. A 4.8 fs broadband Gaussian
pulse with a center wavelength of 633 nm is used to evaluate
the square resonator by the FDTD method. The off-resonant
37 978-1-4673-4439-5/12/$31.00 c 2012 IEEE
L: 2000 nm
w : 100 nm
Input
Transmission
g : 100 nm
x
y
z
z
y
x
( a )
( b )
Quartz glass
Silver
Air
L: 2000 nm
w : 100 nm
Fig. 1. Schematics of the plasmonic square resonator with a trench structure
used in the FDTD simulations: for (a) the x-y plane view and (b) the y-z
plane view.
640 650 660 670 680
-8.0
-7.0
-6.0
Wavelength (nm)
T
r
a
n
s
m
i
s
s
i
o
n

i
n
t
e
n
s
i
t
i
e
s

(
d
B
)
refractive index = 1.00
refractive index = 1.01
Fig. 2. The transmission intensities of the plasmonic square resonator
as functions of wavelength. The solid and dotted lines correspond to the
transmission intensities of the refractive index near the resonator = 1.00
and 1.01, respectively,
wavelengths of the plasmonic square resonator are 658 nm
and 665 nm for which the transmission intensities are both
-6.5 dB, respectively . The off-resonant wavelength is shifted
7 nm when the refractive index near the resonator varied from
1.00 to 1.01. For the detection of changes of refractive index
of materials surrounding the plasmonic square resonator,
the wavelength of the incident light that the transmission
intensity is shifted greatly should be used when the refractive
index is changed. We use a wavelength of 658 nm in the
simulation and the experimentation.
B. Electric eld proles of the plasmonic square resonator
Figure 3 shows the proles of the electric eld () in the
plasmonic square resonator at 50 nm below the top of the
trench structure for (a) a wavelength of 658 nm and (b) 677
nm. As shown in Fig. 3(a), a part of the SPPs are coupled
from the waveguide to the square resonator. The SPPs is not
excited in the square resonator because the wavelength of 658
nm is not the resonant wavelength. Almost all of the SPPs
are transmitted to the square resonator. Then transmission
intensity at the wavelength of 658 nm become the peak
wavelength (shown in Fig. 2). In Fig. 3(b), the SPPs are
(b)
(a)
1.0
0.0
Fig. 3. The proles of the electric eld () in the plasmonic square
resonator at 50 nm below the top of the trench structure for (a) a wavelength
of 658 nm and (b) 677 nm.
-6.6
y

(
d
B
)
ed
-6.6368
(
d
B
)
-6.8
o
n
i
n
t
e
n
s
i
t
y
-6.6369
o
n
i
n
t
e
n
s
i
t
y
T
r
a
n
s
m
i
s
s
i
o
1 000000 1 000001
-6.6370 T
r
a
n
s
m
i
s
s
i
o
) b ( ) a (
1.000 1.005 1.010
-7.0
Refractive index near the plasmonic resonator
T1.000000 1.000001
Refractive index near the plasmonic resonator
Fig. 4. The transmission intensity at the wavelength of 658 nm as a
function of (a) the refractive index of materials surrounding the plasmonic
square resonator and (b) the magnied view.
enhanced in the square resonator. The SPPs are coupled from
the waveguide to the square resonator and enhanced. In this
case, the transmission intensity is decreased because of losses
in the square resonator. Therefore, the transmission intensity
become the trough of the wavelength characteristics of the
square resonator(shown in Fig. 2).
C. Analysis of the detection limit of the refractive index
change
In order to evaluate the detection limit of the refractive
index change, the refractive index of materials surrounding
the plasmonic square resonator is varied from 1.0 to 1.01.
Figure 4(a) shows the transmission intensity at the wave-
length of 658 nm as a function of the refractive index of
materials surrounding the plasmonic square resonator and
(b) magnied view of refractive index range from 1.0 to 1.0
+ 10
6
. In Fig. 4(a), the transmission intensity decreases
when the refractive index of materials surrounding the plas-
monic square resonator increases. As shown in Fig. 4(b),
the difference of the transmission intensity can be at least
seen between 1.0 + 10
6
to 1.01. However, the difference of
the transmission intensity cannot be distinguished between
1.0 and 1.0 + 10
7
. Therefore, the detection limit of the
refractive index change is 1.0 + 10
6
. The highest detection
limit of existing system is 10
6
. The detection limit of the
method using plasmonic square resonator is almost same as
the existing system that has the highest detection limit.
38 2012 First International Conference on Innovative Engineering Systems
2
Fig. 5. SEM images of the plasmonic square resonator. The width, depth,
and waveguide-square gaps are 100 nm, 700 nm, and 100 nm, respectively.
The resonator is 2000 nm square.
Fig. 6. A schematic representation of the experimental setup for evaluating
the function of the fabricated resonator.
III. FABRICATION OF THE PLASMONIC SQUARE
RESONATOR
We have fabricated the plasmonic square resonator for
detecting refractive index changes. Figure 5 shows the scan-
ning electron microscopy (SEM) images of the fabricated
plasmonic square resonator. The structure can be fabricated
in two steps. First, silver is evaporated onto the substrate.
Second, the layer of silver is milled using a focused-ion-
beam (FIB) technique. We evaporated a silver lm with a
thickness of 700 nm on a quartz glass substrate. Then, we
milled the layer of silver to a depth of 500 nm using the FIB
technique. The width, depth, and waveguide-square gaps are
100 nm, 500 nm, and 100 nm, respectively. The resonator is
2000 nm square.
IV. EVALUATION OF THE PLASMONIC SQUARE
RESONATOR
Figure 6 shows a schematic representation of the exper-
imental setup for evaluating the function of the fabricated
resonator. In order to change the refractive index of air we
changed the temperature from 20

C to 50

C near the
resonator. The refractive index of air changed about 10
4
[21].
We used a wavelength of 658 nm and a laser diode as the
excitation source. The light of excitation source irradiates the
input port and SPPs are excited.
(b)
(a)
(c)
Fig. 7. Optical microscope images of (a) the racetrack resonator; in Figs.
7(b) and (c), the resonator is driven with the temperature of 20

C and
50

C, respectively. The excitation source is the wavelength of 658 nm.
Figures 7(a), (b), and (c) show optical microscope images
of the racetrack resonator; in Figs. 7(b) and (c), the resonator
is driven with the temperature of 20

C and 50

C, respec-
tively. In Fig. 7(b), SPPs are propagated in the waveguide
when the temperature near the resonator is 20

C. In Fig.
7(c), SPPs are not propagated in the waveguide when the
temperature near the resonator is 50

C. The refractive index
changes are caused by the change of the temperature near
the resonator. We consider that the refractive index changes
that caused by the temperature change from 20

C to 50

C
is about 10
4
. Therefore, the plasmonic square resonator can
detect the refractive change of about 10
4
.
V. CONCLUSIONS
We have proposed the system using the plasmonic res-
onator for detecting a micro change of the refractive index.
The plasmonic square resonator has been fabricated for using
to the system and has been evaluated it. The detecting limit
of the system is 10
6
theoretically. However, we have found
that the detecting limit of the system is about 10
4
by
changing the temperature near the resonator. We consider that
the system can detect more micro changes of the refractive
index of materials if we do the experimentation in more
detail.
The system for detecting a micro change of the refractive
index we present has potential applications in the eld of
industry.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientic
Research (C) (22510131) from the Japan Society for the
Promotion of Science, a Cooperative Education/Research
Project between the Toyohashi University of Technology and
the National College of Technology as well as between the
Nagaoka University of Technology and the National College
of Technology, and the Mitutoyo Association for Science
and Technology (MAST). This work was carried out using
equipment that was provided by the Cybermedia Center of
Osaka University.
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