Plasmonic analogue of electromagnetically induced transparency in a T-shaped metallic nanohole array and its sensing performance

Abstract

In this paper, a plasmonic analogue of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) is demonstrated theoretically in a T-shaped silver nanohole array. A sharply narrow reflectance transparency window is clearly observed within the background spectrum of the broad dipole-like resonance at optical frequencies when structural asymmetry is introduced. Furthermore, the transparency peak exhibits highly sensitive response to the refractive index of surrounding medium and yield a sensitivity of 725 nm/refractive index unit (RIU), which ensures our proposed nanohole array as an excellent plasmonic sensor. In addition, the dependence of figure of merit (FOM) on structural asymmetry is investigated numerically to optimize the sensing performance of the EIT-based sensor.