Nanoplasmonics: Enabling Platform for Integrated Photonics and Sensing

Strong interactions between electromagnetic radiation and electrons at metallic interfaces or in metallic nanostructures lead to resonant oscillations called surface plasmon resonance with fascinating properties: light confinement in subwavelength dimensions and enhancement of optical near fields, just to name a few [1,2]. By utilizing the properties enabled by geometry dependent localization of surface plasmons, metal photonics or plasmonics offers a promise of enabling novel photonic components and systems for integrated photonics or sensing applications [3-5]. The versatility of the nanoplasmonic platform is described in this talk on three folds: our findings on an enhanced ultracompact photodetector based on nanoridge plasmonics for photonic integrated circuit applications [3], a colorimetric sensing of miRNA based on a nanoplasmonic core-satellite assembly for label-free and on-chip sensing applications [4], and a controlled fabrication of plasmonic nanostructures on a flexible substrate based on a transfer printing process for ultra-sensitive and noise free flexible bio-sensing applications [5]. For integrated photonics, nanoplasmonics offers interesting opportunities providing the material and dimensional compatibility with ultra-small silicon electronics and the integrative functionality using hybrid photonic and electronic nanostructures. For sensing applications, remarkable changes in scattering colors stemming from a plasmonic coupling effect of gold nanoplasmonic particles have been utilized to demonstrate a detection of microRNAs at the femtomolar level with selectivity. As top-down or bottom-up fabrication of such nanoscale structures is limited to more conventional substrates, we have approached the controlled fabrication of highly ordered nanostructures using a transfer printing of pre-functionalized nanodisks on flexible substrates for more enabling applications of nanoplasmonics.