Investigation of the sensitivity of H-shaped nano-grating surface plasmon resonance biosensors using rigorous coupled wave analysis

The sensitivity of an angle-resolved surface plasmon resonance biosensor is not only determined by the shift of the resonance angle, but also the width of the SPR curves and reflective amplitude. The three factors should be considered simultaneously in designing a SPR biosensor. In this study, a H-shaped nano-grating-based SPR biosensor is proposed and the influence of different structural parameters on the performance is investigated by using rigorous coupled wave analysis (RCWA). Electric field distribution around the nano-grating are also given out to directly explain the performance difference for various structural parameters. Larger resonance angle shift, reflectance amplitude and sharper SPR curves' width are obtained simultaneously under optimized structural parameters. Our study is usefully for understanding of the enhancement mechanism of the nano-grating SPR biosensor and also provides instructions for fabricating highly sensitive SPR biosensors.