Theory of Multiple Scattering Enhanced Single Particle Plasmonic Sensing

Methods to increase the light scattered from small particles can help improve the sensitivity of many sensing techniques. Here, we investigate the role multiple scattering plays in perturbing the scattered signal when a particle is added to a random scattering environment. Three enhancement factors, parametrizing the effect of different classes of multiple scattering trajectories on the field perturbation, are introduced and their mean amplitudes explored numerically in the context of surface plasmon polariton scattering. We demonstrate that there exists an optimum scatterer density at which the sensitivity enhancement is maximized, with factors on the order of 10(2) achievable. Dependence of the enhancement factors on scatterer properties are also studied.

Automated summary

Methods to increase light scattering from small particles can improve the sensitivity of sensing techniques by investigating the role of multiple scattering on the scattered signal. It was found that there is an optimum scatterer density for maximizing sensitivity enhancement, with achievable factors on the order of 10^2. The dependence of enhancement factors on scatterer properties was also studied.