Modeling the Optical Response of a Periodic Nanoparticle Arrangement with the Finite Element Method

The refractive index sensitivity of plasmonic sensors is in the focus of many recent investigations. The performance of these optical sensors heavily depends on the geometrical properties of the used nanoparticle arrangements and also the properties of the used illumination conditions, namely the incidence angle and polarization of the incident electromagnetic field. All of these parameters should be optimized in order to maximize sensor performance. This paper aims to design a computational model in Comsol Multiphysics’s Wave Optics module to investigate the effects of light incidence angle and polarization with finite element method on the sensitivity of a plasmonic sensor based on hegaxonally-arranged gold nanoparticles. The purpose of this paper is also to provide a guideline for the modeling of periodic nanoparticle arrangements with different excitation conditions.