Spectral shifts in optical nanoantenna-enhanced hydrogen sensors

In this work, we numerically investigate the nature of spectral shifts in antenna-enhanced hydrogen sensing geometries consisting of a gold bowtie antenna next to a palladium nanodisk. We find through extensive finite element (FEM) simulations that the hydrogen-induced spectral behavior of the system is governed by two competing effects: a small blueshift caused by dielectric function changes in the palladium and a much stronger redshift due to an expansion of the palladium lattice. Our findings enable the accurate numerical characterization and especially the optimization of sensitive antenna-enhanced hydrogen sensors. As a first application, we calculate the performance improvement of gap antennas compared to single cut-wire antenna elements. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America