Magnetic plasmons (MPs) refer to the coupling of external electromagnetic waves with a strong magnetic response induced inside the nanostructures. MPs have been widely employed as artificial magnetic atoms to fabricate negative-permeability or negative-refractive-index metamaterials with peculiar electromagnetic properties. Here, we propose a refractive index sensing by utilizing the MP resonances excited in a simple one-dimensional (1D) metallic nanogroove array. We demonstrate a sensitivity up to 1200 nm/RIU with a figure of merit (FOM*) of 15 thanks to the MP resonances that are extremely sensitive to the surrounding media. Importantly, the influence of the local environment effects on the sensing ability is studied. An equivalent inductor-capacitor (LC) model is used to give a precise quantitative description of the sensing performance and reveal the underlying mechanism. Such a MP-based sensor with the ease of fabrication may provide great potentials in designing broadband sensing devices with high performance and compactness.

中文翻译：

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简单的金属纳米槽阵列中的磁等离子体，用于折射率传感

磁等离子体激元（MPs）是指外部电磁波与纳米结构内部感应的强磁响应的耦合。MP已被广泛用作人造磁性原子，以制造具有特殊电磁特性的负磁导率或负折射率超材料。在这里，我们提出了利用在简单的一维（1D）金属纳米沟槽阵列中激发的MP共振来进行折射率传感的方法。由于MP共振对周围介质极为敏感，我们证明了高达1200 nm / RIU的品质因数（FOM *）为15。重要的是，研究了局部环境效应对传感能力的影响。等效电感电容（LC）模型用于对传感性能进行精确的定量描述，并揭示其潜在机理。这种易于制造的基于MP的传感器在设计具有高性能和紧凑性的宽带传感设备方面​​可以提供巨大的潜力。