Plasmonic refractive index nano sensor based on triplet coupled stub resonators based Fano resonances

Fano resonance arises from the superposition of a narrow discrete resonance with a continuous state. In this paper, a Fano resonance-based plasmonic refractive index sensor based on nanoscale metal-insulator-metal (MIM) waveguides is proposed and evaluated by applying the two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (2D FDTD) method. An MIM-based single stub vertically attached to an MIM waveguide is considered as the unit cell of the waveguide system of the proposed structure. A transfer matrix of transmission and coupling complex coefficients is defined for the unit cell of the waveguide system of the proposed sensor, and the conditions for the authenticity of its modeling based on the transmission line theory are evaluated. A system of triplet coupled stub resonators (TCSRs) attached to an MIM waveguide is coupled with a disk resonator to induce Fano resonances in the transmission spectrum of the sensor. Fano resonance and its characteristics are utilized to improve the essential operating parameters of the sensor, such as full width at half maximum (FWHM) and figure of merit (FOM). In optimized conditions, for the system of TCSRs coupled to a disk resonator, a resonance with a sensitivity of 684 nm/RIU and an FOM of 621.8 1/RIU exhibited. Also, for the system of TCSRs coupled to a ring resonator, a resonance with a sensitivity of 3524 nm/RIU and an FOM of 35.24 1/RIU was achieved. Eventually, the numerically achieved results for the operating parameters of the sensor are validated using governing analytical methods.