Work

Toroidal Dipole‐Dominated High‐Performance Optical Sensors via Nanoimprinted Tetramer Architectures

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: ABSTRACT Practical high‐Q metasurface sensors face two bottlenecks: maximizing analyte near‐field coupling while suppressing radiative loss and ensuring compatibility with low‐cost large‐area fabrication. Here, we present a nanoimprinted tetramer architecture (NTA) sensor fabricated via two‐step nanoimprint lithography, consisting of polystyrene nanopillar tetramer arrays atop a PS waveguide and gold mirror, supporting a prominent resonance mode at 810 nm (D 1 mode) exhibiting a pronounced Fano line shape with a high Q of 3124. In contrast, the experimentally measured resonance of the fabricated device exhibits a FWHM of approximately 12 nm, corresponding to a Q factor of about 70. Multipole decomposition confirms that the D 1 mode is governed by toroidal dipoles, with suppressed conventional electric/magnetic multipoles, thereby achieving radiative cancellation via multipole manipulation. Measured in aqueous glycerol solutions, the sensor achieves a refractive index sensitivity of 501 nm/RIU and a figure of merit of 42 RIU −1 . Label‐free hemoglobin biosensing yields a sensitivity of 354.7 nm·(μg/L) −1 . Benefiting from tetramer symmetry, the resonance response remains stable across 0°–90° polarization angles. This work develops a scalable low‐cost strategy for toroidal‐dipole‐enhanced high‐Q biosensors, promising high‐sensitivity detection for medical diagnosis and environmental monitoring.

Source: Nanophotonics

DOI: 10.1002/nap2.70336