Refractive index dependent local electric field enhancement in cylindrical gold nanohole

Abstract

We report on the local electric field characters in a long cylindrical gold nanohole. Theoretical calculation results based on quasi-static model show that the local environmental dielectric constant dependent electric field intensity and field distribution in the gold nanohole show quite unique properties, different from those in the thin gold nanotube. Because of the thick gold wall, no plasmon hybridization exists. So there is only one resonance frequency taking place, and the intense local field has been focused into the gold nanohole. Our main finding is that, the local field in the nanohole is largely dependent on the inner hole refractive index and outer environmental refractive index. The competition between inner hole and outer polarization leads to a non-monotonic change of the local field intensity with increasing the dielectric constant of the nanohole. This refractive index controlled local field enhancement in cylindrical gold nanohole presents a potential for tunable surface-enhanced fluorescence and novel nano-optical biosensing applications.