A refractive index sensor based on the MIM waveguide with a semi-elliptical and a rectangular ring resonant cavity

Abstract

In this paper, a novel nanosensor comprising the metal–insulator–metal (MIM) plasmonics waveguide with a semi-elliptical and rectangular ring resonant cavity is designed. In near-infrared waveband, the propagation properties of electromagnetic waves in the structure are studied using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The results show that, based on the coupling between the semi-elliptical and the rectangular ring resonant cavity, the transmission spectrum of the structure exhibits a sharp Fano resonance shape. Next, the influence of the refractive index and sensor structure parameters on performance is systematically investigated. The simulation results show that the sensor structure has the best sensitivity of 1384[Formula: see text]nm/RIU (refractive index unit), and the figure of merit (FOM) is 28.4. The simple MIM structure could be applied to sensitive plasmonic sensors.