Cross slit-grooves grid structure for surface plasmon resonant sensor

Abstract

Surface plasmon resonant (SPR) phenomenon is widely researched for various purposes, among which biomedical sensing is getting more attentions as they are suitable for surface functionalization acting as a bio recognition element to detect different biological infections. The common method of surface resonant is propagating SPR such as reflection method. Another method which is widely used for SPR is localized SPR which use nanostructures in thin metal. Various structures such as slit only, slit- groove and slit-multiple groove are used for generation of SPR and obtaining the optimum optical transmittance through the structure. The number and position of slits and grooves affect transmittance through the structure. In this paper we propose a new structure of cross slit-grooves structure, which includes slit-groove structure in grid form. The slit-grooves structures are arranged in such a way that it forms symmetrical structure in two dimension with slit and groove and hence the transmittance with cross slit-grooves structure increases significantly. The cross slit-grooves structure takes the advantage of symmetrical slit and groove by using both dimensional structures for generating SPR which increases the transmittance through the structure. A comparison of proposed slit-grooves grid structure with straight slit-grooves structure is carried out to show the increase in transmittance through the cross slit-grooves grid structure. Plane wavelength of 400 nm to 900 nm is used for the analysis of transmittance through the Ag slit-grooves grid structures with glass substrate. We also measure the change in transmittance with change in refractive index, which can be helpful for measuring different chemical analytes, and hence can be used for different chemical and biosensors applications.