Ultra high-sensitivity and tunable dual-band perfect absorber as a plasmonic sensor

Abstract

In this paper, we demonstrate a dual-band tunable absorber coupled with a nanoscale metal-dielectric-metal (MDM) structure for sensing applications in the near-infrared spectral region. This structure exhibits a dipole resonance mode in absorbance and reflectance spectra which results in the enhancement of absorbance over a wide range of incident angles for TE polarization. Using a numerical and analytical study, the performance parameters of the structure including sensitivity (SS), the figure of merit (FoM) and quality factor (Q) are investigated by changing the incident polarization, geometrical parameters, filling dielectric and plasmonic metasurface material. Moreover, we study the dependence of the sensitivity as a function of plasmonic metasurface shape to demonstrate a better response compared with other methods. Results show that, in terms of the refractive index unit (RIU), an ultra-high sensitivity and tunable sensor can be designed with a maximum sensitivity of 1240.8 nm/RIU for a refractive index change of Δn = 0.0458. In the optimum design of the proposed dual-band absorber, a Q-factor and FoM equal to 123.45 and 44.5 are obtained. Furthermore, the proposed structure can be utilized for controlling the light propagation. By considering silver as a plasmonic metasurface, a slow down factor as high as 680 is obtained. Our work will be applied to future sensors capable of ultra-high sensitivity.