Profile effect on the feasibility of extinction-based localized surface plasmon resonance biosensors with metallic nanowires

We investigate the effect of the cross-sectional profile of an array of metallic nanowires on the feasibility of a localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) biosensor. Calculations were performed using rigorous coupled-wave analysis with an emphasis on the extinction proper-ties of the LSPR structure. The results indicate that the nanowire structure, particularly that of a T-profile, delivers an extremely linear sensing performance over a wide range of the target refractive index with much enhanced sensitivity. The extinction-based LSPR structure also involves a relatively large dimension and thus is expected to provide a feasible biosensor using current semiconductor technology. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.