Refractive index sensing with Fano resonances in silicon oligomers

Katie E Chong; Henry W Orton; Isabelle Staude; Manuel Decker; Andrey E Miroshnichenko; Igal Brener; Yuri S Kivshar; Dragomir N Neshev

doi:10.1098/rsta.2016.0070

Refractive index sensing with Fano resonances in silicon oligomers

Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci. 2017 Mar 28;375(2090):20160070. doi: 10.1098/rsta.2016.0070.

Authors

Katie E Chong¹, Henry W Orton¹, Isabelle Staude^{1

2}, Manuel Decker¹, Andrey E Miroshnichenko¹, Igal Brener³, Yuri S Kivshar¹, Dragomir N Neshev⁴

Affiliations

¹ Nonlinear Physics Centre, Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia.
² Institute of Applied Physics, Abbe Center of Photonics, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, 07745 Jena, Germany.
³ Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM 87185, USA.
⁴ Nonlinear Physics Centre, Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia dragomir.neshev@anu.edu.au.

Abstract

We demonstrate experimentally refractive index sensing with localized Fano resonances in silicon oligomers, consisting of six disks surrounding a central one of slightly different diameter. Owing to the low absorption and narrow Fano-resonant spectral features appearing as a result of the interference of the modes of the outer and the central disks, we demonstrate refractive index sensitivity of more than 150 nm RIU^-1 with a figure of merit of 3.8.This article is part of the themed issue 'New horizons for nanophotonics'.

Keywords: Fano resonances; nanophotonic structures; oligomer; sensing.