All-dielectric metasurface refractive index sensor with high figure of merit based on quasi-bound states in the continuum

Abstract All-Dielectric metasurfaces are widely used in the field of sense due to their small size, freedom of design, and low radiation loss. However, the optical sensor still has the problem of wide full width at half maximum (FWHM), which leads to a low figure of merit (FOM). In order to solve this problem, an all-dielectric metasurface based on quasi-bound states in the continuum (q-BIC) was proposed for refractive index sensing. The sensor structure consisted of a prism/metasurface/analyte, where the metasurface was composed of periodically arranged subwavelength asymmetric silicon gratings. The asymmetry of the structure led to the coupling of the tangential and radiative field components in the superficial layer at the resonance position, which formed a q-BIC resonance peak with a narrow FWHM in the reflection spectrum. We explained the causes of the q-BIC resonance peak generation by finite element analysis, and analyzed the factors affecting the FWHM, and also simulated the machining errors. The results showed that by reducing the asymmetry of the sensor, it could have a high FOM, with a FOM of 1.35 × 10 7 RIU −1 . In addition, simulated machining errors within ±5 nm showed that small machining errors did not lead to the disappearance of q-BIC, which proved that the sensor had good robustness. These findings had provided ideas for the accurate detection of trace substances.