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In this article, a plasmonic gold nanoantenna is proposed as a sensor to monitor refractive index variations between 1.30 and 1.35. These values are defined since they are characteristic of, for instance, water-based solutions, DNA, or haemoglobin. To simulate the device a novel model is used, which takes advantage of the wave-particle dualism and the generalised Fresnel coefficients for absorbing media. Although it is a time-domain model, in this research work the model is improved to compute steady state and frequency-domain results. The response to a Dirac excitation is obtained using that novel model. The steady state is reached for a long pulse emission. The long pulse emission is emulated by a Dirac comb and consequently, the optical response of the device for this kind of excitation is obtained considering the sum of several Dirac's responses shifted in time. Then, steady state might be reached as suggested by the presented results. Taking into account the obtained pulse responses, the refractive index sensor for the range 1.30–1.35 is proposed. The obtained results suggest that 350 nm and 450 nm are the best wavelengths to detect these analyte variations. The sensitivity reaches values up to around 110%/RIU, but sensitivities around 80%/RIU are computed within the range 250–500 nm.

Nano antennas have a significant role in photonic nanodevices due to the ability of concentrating radiation in a small space region. The confined fields present a high sensitivity to the used materials in that regions. The electromagnetic wave models of nanoantennas usually operate in the frequency domain. However, electromagnetic wave models in the time domain are just as important and more advantageous, for example, in light pulses propagation. In this article, a new stochastic method based on the ray model of light in absorbing media is presented and light patterns on a target near a nanoantenna are obtained. The optical properties of the materials are described by their complex refractive index. When dealing with photons in the time domain, this formulation allows the calculation of the probability of a given photon movement. Different patterns, obtained with the new method, are compared with a Finite Element Tool ones, leading to model validation. The simulated structure included an aperture nanoantenna. With this method, the results show the light confinement and the extraordinary optical transmission phenomenon, meaning some photons on the target are refracted and re-transmitted by the metal. Thus, the output beam is more intense than the transmitted directly by the apertures.

At nano-scale new phenomena have been discovered, allowing devices’ miniaturisation, energy harvesting, and power reduction. The Extraordinary Optical Transmission (EOT) phenomenon was reported in 1998 by Ebessen, who stated that the resonant peaks in the response of metallic nano antennas were more intense than predicted by classical diffraction theories. Years later, the main reason for this behaviour was attributed to the Surface Plasmon Polaritons (SPP), at least in ultraviolet and visible regions. In this article, a new method to model the radiation-matter interaction on a dielectric-metal interface is proposed, based on Maxwell’s equations and Fresnel Coefficients in absorbing media. Transmission percentage, angle and propagation length are obtained for a rigorous sweep on incident angle and wavelength. The results taken using some noble metals allow us to observe the presence of surface phenomena at expected SPP resonances. First, it is noticeable huge values of transmission in ultraviolet and visible regions, meaning that the metal does not reflect all the radiation. Also, the transmission angle tends to be higher, meaning huge surface components. Furthermore, the transmission length is on orders of 50-100 nm, meaning that phenomena as EOT only occurs at the nano-scale, since waves should arrive at another interface before being absorbed.

A new hybrid finite element method (HFEM) was developed, using basis functions of first and second order, to analyse the electromagnetic wave propagation in three types of waveguides: disk waveguides, ring waveguides and cylindrical waveguides. For validation purposes, results obtained with the HFEM method were compared with those obtained with a recursive finite element method (RFEM) and with two different analytical methods. The domain discretization effect on the results of the new HFEM method was examined using either a uniform distribution of nodes or a Delaunay distribution method. The results show that the Delaunay method, used in the mesh definition, is important, not only to assure the reliability of the method but also to significantly reduce the computation time and memory consumption. Also, the influence of the distance between the fictitious boundary and the waveguide core was analysed showing an important effect on the result numerical accuracy. In conclusion, results show that the new hybrid finite element method presented has a significant advantage on calculation time over the recursive finite element method.