Plasmonic Gas Sensing with Graphene Nanoribbons

The main challenge to exploiting plasmons for gas vibrational mode sensing is the extremely weak infrared absorption of gas species. In this work, we explore the possibility of trapping free-gas molecules via surface adsorption, optical, or electrostatic fields to enhance gas-plasmon interactions and to increase plasmon-sensing ability. We discuss the relative strengths of these trapping forces and find gas adsorption in a typical nanoribbon array plasmonic setup produces measurable dips in optical extinction of magnitude 0.1% for a gas concentration of about the parts per thousand level.