Exploiting plasmonics for THz and infrared sensing

Bridging the gap in scale between the THz wavelength and the biomolecule sample sizes to be sensed is a challenging task. We tackle this mismatch by developing sensing platforms based on the concepts of designer surface plasmon polaritons and localized plasmons. We show that corrugated metallic surfaces, complementary split ring resonators and arrays of micro-dipoles provides enhanced THz-matter interaction times and strong interrogating evanescent fields. We will also demonstrate how transformation optics can be used to design broadband plasmonic semiconductor and metallic gap micro-antennas for terahertz-to-visible applications.