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Publication

Dual-peak sensing with hyperbolic Ag-SiO₂ nanodisks

Kochanowska O., Wróbel P., Szymańska A., Antosiewicz T.

Optics Express

34(10), 2026, pp. 17948-17962, 10.1364/OE.597485

Hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs) offer extensive possibilities for tailoring light-matter interactions due to their anisotropic permittivity. Hyperbolic nanoantennas exhibit distinct modes: a strongly radiative, electric dipole mode and a non-radiative coupled magnetic dipole–electric quadrupole mode. Here, we study optical HMM nanodisks consisting of a silver-silica multilayer and investigate the potential of these nanostructures to function as efficient, dual-channel optical sensors. By tuning material and structural parameters, we design an easy-to-fabricate HMM nanosensor, which offers high sensitivity of both detectable resonances. The sensing substrates are based on amorphous/random arrays of particles, which play a key role in ensuring spectral separation of the modes and maximizing the sensitivity. To confirm the numerical design, we fabricate an amorphous array of hyperbolic nanodisks composed of ultra-smooth thin silver (on a germanium wetting layer) and silica layers using hole-mask colloidal lithography. Sensitivity measurements yield good qualitative agreement with simulations, proving that hyperbolic nanodisks are promising dual-band refractometric sensors with potential use in bio- or environmental monitoring.


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