Mechanisms of Fano-resonant biosensing: Mechanical loading of plasmonic oscillators

Abstract

Distinctively narrow and asymmetric line shape Fano resonances arise due to resonant interactions of sub-radiant and super-radiant modes in plasmonic nanostructures and metamaterials. A number of recent experimental studies have shown unique opportunities provided by highly dispersive Fano resonances in biosensing applications. However, there is limited understanding of Fano resonant optical response to biomolecular accumulation. Here, we introduce a phenomenological model that can precisely describe the intricate nature of the Fano resonances in plasmonic nanohole arrays and provide unambiguous physical insights into biosensing experiments. Using rigorous electromagnetic simulations and experimental measurements as benchmarking tools, we show that the non-trivial contribution of molecular accumulation to Fano resonant plasmonic response can be incorporated as a mechanical loading effect in a coupled-oscillator model. Quite remarkably, our phenomenological approach captures the complex spectral response of the Fano resonance profile and asymmetric linewidth broadening upon molecular accumulation. Furthermore, in strong agreement with our experimental measurements, we show that our parameterized​ model has predictive power in fine tuning the Fano resonant extraordinary light transmission lineshape using structural design parameters without resorting to electromagnetic simulations. Our phenomenological model provides a general analytical method that can be adapted to understand biomolecular detection measurements in different plasmonic and metamaterial systems.