The Fano Signature in the Optical Response of a Waveguide-excited Compound Plasmonic Nanoantenna

Abstract

While long-range propagating plasmons have been extensively investigated for implementing on-chip optical sensing platforms, waveguide-excited localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) based sensing systems have not yet received much attention. Waveguide excitation and readout as an alternative to free-space light based single-particle spectroscopy are particularly attractive for high-throughput sensing and on-chip drug discovery platforms. Here we present a numerical investigation of the optical response of a waveguide-excited plasmonic dolmen-shaped compound nanoantenna that exhibits a Fano signature in its spectral response. Although only evanescently coupled to the waveguide, the compound nanoantenna is seen to induce a high-contrast extinction in the transmission spectrum of the waveguide. The compound plasmonic nanoantenna configuration presented here is of interest in hybrid photonic-plasmonic sensing approaches with high-throughput capabilities.