Enhanced Transverse Magneto-Optical Kerr Effect in Magnetoplasmonic Crystals for the Design of Highly Sensitive Plasmonic (Bio)sensing Platforms

Abstract

We propose a highly sensitive sensor based on enhancing the transversal magneto-optical Kerr effect (TMOKE) through excitation of surface plasmon resonances in a novel and simple architecture, which consists of a metal grating on a metal magneto-optical layer. Detection of the change in the refractive index of the analyte medium is made by monitoring the angular shift of the Fano-like resonances associated with TMOKE. A higher resolution is obtained with this technique than with reflectance curves. The key aspect of the novel architecture is to achieve excitation of surface plasmon resonances mainly localized at the sensing layer, where interaction with the analyte occurs. This led to a high sensitivity, S = 190° RIU–1, and high performance with a figure of merit of the order of 103, which can be exploited in sensors and biosensors.

Magneto-Optic Surface Plasmon Resonance Ti/Au/Co/Au/Pc Configuration and Sensitivity

“…), surface plasmon resonance (SPR), and magneto-optics SPR effects arising from the interaction of magnetic field with surface plasmon polariton and correspondingly induced MO properties, and these have huge potential for various applications, for details, see past papers [1][2][3]. New functionality can be achieved from the combined roles of generating surface plasmon oscillations in the artificially tailored MO structures when excited by a TM polarized (p-polarized) optical radiation that is further controlled by external magnetic, H fields [4]. The excitation condition strongly depends on the magnetic properties such as magnetic permeability and susceptibility, microstructure properties such as metal/dielectric and metal/metal interface states, and dielectric properties such as permittivity of the layers involved [5].…”

Magnetically controllable metasurface and its application

“…Thus, researchers proposed 1D or 2D grating coupling to achieve SPR excitation. For example, Diaz-Valencia et al [93] proposed a simple structure that covered a 1D metal grating on the MO layer, as shown in Fig. 11(a).…”

“…Fig.11(a) 1D grating/MO layer for refractive index sensing[93]. (b) Au/Co/Au magnetoplasmonic crystal for MOSPR sensor[94] …”

Plasmonics for Telecommunications Applications

“…Analogous to the prism coupler approach, these plasmonic grating structures have also been used for sensing and biosensing applications [41][42][43][44]. In telecommunications, their applications range from transmission lines to optical modulators [45][46][47][48][49][50].…”