Refractive index sensing characteristics of dual resonances in rectangular fractal nano-apertures

Aperture based sensing platforms can be useful for both gas and bio-sensing applications. In this study, we investigate the refractive index sensing characteristics of dual resonances in rectangular fractal nanoapertures. By taking the advantages coming from its aperture based nature and dual band resonant behavior, one can use this platform to detect two different chemical/bin-molecules simultaneously. For the numerical analysis, we study the rectangular fractal nanoantenna array through the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. We also introduce a fine tuning mechanism for adjusting the resonance frequencies which is important for the sensing applications. Then, we demonstrate the results of refractive index sensitivity tests in order to show the behavior of the structure against the refractive index changes. In these tests, we embed our sensing platform into different cladding media and obtain the refractive index sensing characteristics of dual resonances. Due to the dual-resonant behavior with easily accessible ultra-high-field localization characteristics, the proposed sensing platform can be a good candidate for ultra-sensitive chemical- and bio-sensing applications. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.