Resolution Enhancement of Plasmonic Sensors by Metal‐Insulator‐Metal Structures

Optical sensors based on surface plasmons have attracted much attention over the past decades owing to the wealth of applications in bio‐ and chemical and gas sensing. In surface plasmon resonance sensors, a single metal layer is commonly used, but its resolution is limited because of broad resonances. In this context, we have developed a sensor chip based on a stack of metals and a dielectric, e.g. a metal‐insulator‐metal structure, consisting of a thick insulator layer sandwiched by metal layers, that exhibits a sharp resonance due to the excitation of surface plasmon polaritons hybrid modes. We have performed both experiments and theoretical simulations to estimate the enhancement of the sensitivity of such a structure. By changing the refractive index of an aqueous solution of glucose on top of the sensor chip, we found that the use of a metal‐insulator‐metal structure improves the figure of merit of the sensor 7.5 times compared to that of a conventional surface plasmon resonance sensor chip.