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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 58, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2010

Analysis of MetalInsulatorMetal Structure

and Its Application to Sensor
Masaya Tamura, Member, IEEE, and Hiroshi Kagata

AbstractIn this paper, analysis and design method of a

metalinsulatormetal (MIM) structure is introduced. When an
electromagnetic wave enters an MIM structure, a surface plasmon
is excited on both metals. In this case, an electromagnetic-field
standing wave by the surface plasmon used as a wave source is
generated in the insulator. This electromagnetic-field standing
wave has various modes depending on the thickness of the insulator. In this paper, we establish by calculation, 3-D simulation,
and measurement that a plasmon resonant wave can be controlled
by changing the thickness of the insulator. We propose a sensor
with an MIM structure that exploits this phenomenon. If the
insulator of the MIM structure comprises air, the target solution
can be injected into the insulator by capillary action, and the MIM
structure is thus used as a sensor. This is because the wavelength
of the electromagnetic-field standing wave in the insulator is made
shorter in proportion to the refractive index of the target solution.
We have confirmed this fact by calculation, 3-D simulations, and
measurement. Our measurements show good agreement with the
calculations and 3-D simulations, indicating that our MIM sensor
is able to detect differences in refractive index of the order of
0.7%.
Index TermsElectromagnetic wave, negative permittivity,
plasmon-polariton, sensor, surface plasmon.

I. INTRODUCTION
LASMONS that are excited on the surface of thin metals
have been investigated for many years. A plasmon is a
compressional wave that excites electromagnetic fields [1], [2].
A plasmon wave coupled with an electromagnetic wave provided by an external source is called a surface plasmon (polariton). A surface plasmon is sensitive to variations in the permittivity of a thin metals surface, and many sensors have been
proposed that exploit this principle [3][10].
To excite a surface plasmon by an electromagnetic wave, its
wavenumber must correspond to that of the surface plasmon.
Structures exist that realize this, including structures that use a
prism and metal (Kretshmann or Otto type) [3][8]. Light waves
enter at the total reflection angle to the metal via a prism. An
evanescent wave is generated on the surface of the metal where
the light wave enters, causing surface plasmon resonance. In
this case, downsizing the measurement equipment and the optics

Manuscript received June 30, 2010; revised September 09, 2010; accepted
September 20, 2010. Date of publication October 28, 2010; date of current version December 10, 2010. This paper is an expanded paper from the IEEE MTT-S
International Microwave Symposium, Anaheim, CA, May 2328, 2010.
The authors are with the Corporate Components Development Division, Panasonic Electronic Devices Corporation Ltd., Kadoma City, Osaka,
571-8506, Japan (e-mail:tamura.masaya@jp.panasonic.com).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMTT.2010.2081998

Fig. 1. Basic MIM structure.

system is difficult, since a prism is needed. Moreover, when the

incident angle of the electromagnetic wave (light wave) is low,
surface plasmon resonance does not occur.
On the other hand, structures using optical fibers have been
reported [9], [10]. The metal is arranged inside the optical fiber,
and, by forming a grating structure on the surface of the metal,
plasmon resonance corresponding to the grating structure is excited. When the incident angle of the light wave is 0 , this
structure can excite surface plasmon resonance. However, if the
grating structure is designed to excite the surface plasmon resonance in the range of visible light, it is difficult to fabricate it,
since a periodic structure corresponding to the wavelength of
visible light is needed. This makes the downsizing or fabrication of a conventional sensor using surface plasmon resonance
very difficult.
As a means of solving these problems, the metalinsulatormetal (MIM) structure shown in Fig. 1 can be applied
[11], [12]. This structure can excite surface plasmon resonance
without a prism or grating structure.
In this paper, we propose a sensor using an MIM structure.
First, in Section II, the principle and design method of the MIM
structure is elucidated by calculation, 3-D simulation, and measurements based on [12]. In Section III, a sensor using an MIM
structure is proposed. The solution to be tested is injected into
the insulator. In [13], an MIM structure is introduced, but it
is different from our proposed MIM structure design [12]. The
sensor using an MIM structure [13] has to give the light wave
into a narrow gap of 50 nm, but the light wave can be given
to our structure from the top glass layer. Therefore, our structure can be measured easily. Finally, we compare the reflection

0018-9480/$26.00 2010 IEEE

TAMURA AND KAGATA: ANALYSIS OF MIM STRUCTURE AND ITS APPLICATION TO SENSOR

3955

wavenumber of this surface plasmon is equal to that of the

generated electromagnetic field, and the plasmon on Boundary
,
2. Because Metal 2 is much thicker than Metal 1
the evanescent wave generated inside Metal 2 does not transmit
to Boundary 4, and a surface plasmon is therefore not excited
at Boundary 4. An electromagnetic wave is generated by the
surface plasmon excited in Boundary 3. Because this electromagnetic wave has the same wavelength as the electromagnetic
wave excited by the surface plasmon in Boundary 2, an electromagnetic standing wave occurs in the insulator.
When the conditions are satisfied such that an electromagnetic field standing wave is caused in the insulator, incident
light is absorbed. The absorbed wavelength is determined by
the wavelength of the standing wave in the insulator. It can thus
be seen that the MIM structure is a resonator.
B. Theoretical Calculation
The wavelength of the surface plasmon resonance in the MIM
structure that can be detected is calculated using multilayer filter
theory [15]. When absorption by the surface plasmon resonance
is realized, the metal can be treated as a dielectric substance with
negative permittivity.
For a MIM structure, the transmission matrix of Metal 1, In,
, and
defined by
sulator, and Metal 2 are
(1)

Fig. 2. When a light wave enters, the phenomena at each boundary occur at:
(a) Boundary 1, (b) Boundary 2, and (c) Boundary 3.

where
properties in relation to the wavelength of the prototype sensor
by calculation and 3-D simulation.
II. DESIGN OF THE MIM STRUCTURE
A. Principle of the MIM Structure
Here, the principle of operation of the MIM structure shown
in Fig. 1 is described. The MIM structure shown in Fig. 1 consists of Metal 1 of thickness , Insulator of thickness , and
Metal 2 of thickness . When light waves enter this structure
from Air 1, a specific light wavelength is absorbed by the surface
plasmon resonance. Most of the remaining light wavelengths are
reflected at the surfaces of Metal 1 or Metal 2. A portion of the
remaining light waves is absorbed and attenuated by Metal 2.
The excitation of surface plasmon resonance in this structure is
explained below using Fig. 2.
As shown in Fig. 2(a), when light waves enter Metal 1
(Boundary 1), an evanescent wave occurs inside Metal 1. A
surface plasmon is excited on Boundary 2, shown in Fig. 2(b),
by this evanescent wave. Because a surface plasmon is an effect
of the mass behavior of electrons, an electromagnetic field is
generated within the insulator. This electromagnetic fields
wavenumber corresponds to that of the surface plasmon excited
in Boundary 2.
The evanescent wave on the surface of Metal 2 (Boundary
3) is excited by this field. As a result, as shown in Fig. 2(c),
a surface plasmon on Boundary 3 is also excited, and the

is a phase variation and is described by

(2)

where indicates the order of the medium,

is Air 1,
describes the complex refractive index of the th medium, is
the refractive index, is the extinction coefficient, and shows
the thickness of the th layer.
The transmission matrix of the MIM structure is the product
of the transmission matrix of each thin film
(3)
where
,
,
, and
indicate each element of the
of the MIM structure.
transmission matrix
Therefore, the reflection property is represented by

(4)
is a complex conjugate, and indicates the refractive
where
index of the medium in air.
The wavelength of the surface plasmon resonance in the MIM
structure is calculated to determine the nulls or minimum points.
Our proposed MIM structure has glass layers on which each
metal is formed. The glass permittivity is 2.25 and its loss is
ignored. The complex refractive index of Au is
to

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 58, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2010

On the incident side, first, Au/Ti is formed on the glass by

electron beam (EB) deposition, as shown in Fig. 4(a). Titanium
is utilized as the adhesion layer, and its thickness is 10 nm.
The thickness of Au corresponds to the insulator thickness. This
Au/Ti is made using a mask and plays the roles of walls and pillars to form the air layer. The pillar is a 200- m-diameter cylindrical rod, with the center-to-center distance of the cylinder rods
set at 400- m intervals. Next, the mask is removed and an Au
layer 45 nm thick is formed by EB deposition.
On the reflecting side, Au/Ti (300 nm/10 nm) is formed on
the glass by EB deposition [Fig. 4(b)]. Finally, as shown in
Fig. 4(c), the incident and reflection sides are bonded by AuAu
interconnection.
mm .
The dimensions of the prototype are
The area in which the surface plasmon resonance is observed is
18 mm 10 mm. This structure is shown in Fig. 5.
Fig. 3. Simulation model.

TABLE I
THICKNESS OF EACH LAYER IN SIMULATION

[15]. The calculated range of the wavelength is

4001600 nm.
C. 3-D Electromagnetic Simulation
The 3-D simulator is employed by MicroWave Studio (MW
Studio) from AET Inc. The analytical method is the finite-element method (FEM). The simulated model is shown in Fig. 3,
with the dimensions of 100 nm 100 nm, and the infinite periodic boundary condition is given to four faces in this model.
To shorten the simulation time, the air layers (Air 1 and 2 in
Fig. 1) of the incident and the reflecting sides are set at 100 nm.
The simulation ports are Floquet ports and are located in Air 1
and 2. The glasses are set in the simulation model as the substrate upper surface of Metal 1 and the lower surface of Metal 2
in consideration of fabricating the prototype. The glass permittivity is 2.25 and its loss is ignored. Each glass thickness is set
to 100 nm to shorten the simulation time. The parameters of the
simulation model are shown in Table I. The simulated range of
wavelengths is 4001600 nm.
D. Fabrication Process
The fabrication process is shown in Fig. 4. Because the insulator is air for the MIM structure, Metal 1 is used for the incident side and Metal 2 is used for the reflection side. Both metals
are Au. The incident and reflection sides are bonded by AuAu
interconnection.

E. Comparison of Calculated, Simulated, and Measured

Results
A validation was carried out to confirm that the plasmon resonant wavelength is determined by the wavelength of the electromagnetic-field standing wave in the insulator. To change the
of the insulator, we changed the height of the pilthickness
lars and fabricated the prototypes. The change in the resonance
wavelength with the thickness of the insulator is shown in Fig. 6.
The insulator is air. Our prototype was measured using an Otsuka Denshi FE-3000 reflective film thickness monitor. An aluminum membrane was used for calibration. The incident light
wave angle was 0 , and the range of wavelengths measured was
400800 nm. The light wave is incident on the aluminum put on
the stage, and the reference is set up by measuring the reflecting
light that is dispersed by the aluminum. In a similar way, the
prototype is measured, and reflectance is calculated.
The measurement results show good agreement with the calculated and 3-D simulated results. The reason for the discrepancy between the calculated and 3-D simulated results at resonant wavelengths longer 1200 nm appears to be that the air
layers (Air 1 and Air 2) were included only in the simulation.
Furthermore, to shorten the simulation time, the number of the
235 nm, only the first mode of
mesh is controlled. For
the standing wave is generated in the insulator and one resonant
300 nm, the first and
wavelength was observed [12]. For
second modes of standing waves were generated in the insulator,
540 nm,
and two resonant wavelengths were observed. For
the first, second, and third modes are generated [12]. In the
measured results, the second and third modes are observed. For
700 nm as well, the first, second, and third modes are
generated, and the second and third modes are observed. For
850 nm, the first to fourth modes are excited [12]. In the
measured results, the third and fourth modes are observed.
From these validations, it is confirmed that the mode of the
standing wave can be changed by controlling the thickness of the
insulator, and it is found that it also affects the plasmon resonant
wavelength.
III. APPLICATION TO SENSOR
Here, we explain the application of the MIM structure for use
as a sensor.

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Fig. 4. Process of MIM. (a) Incident side. (b) Reflecting side. (c) Prototype.

Fig. 5. Photograph of the prototype.

Fig. 7. Calculated and simulated results of optimum thickness on the incident
side.

Fig. 6. Relationship between resonant wavelength and insulator thickness.

A. Structure Design
The surface-plasmon resonance wavelength excited by the
MIM structure is changed by controlling the standing wave in
the insulator. In fact, if the refractive index in the insulator is
changed, the wavelength of the standing wave in the insulator
is also changed. The plasmon resonant wavelength can also be
changed accordingly. The MIM structure works as a sensor
using this phenomenon.
First, the optimum thickness of Au on the incident side is
calculated: this is the thickness of the metal in which the reflectance has the smallest value when the surface plasmon resonance shows approximately 610 nm. Highly accurate sensing

becomes possible at the optimum thickness. The thickness of

Au on the incident side is very important, since the Au on the
incident side is needed to excite the surface plasmon resonance
by the evanescent wave. Au on the reflecting side is needed so
as not to excite the surface plasmon resonance in Boundary 4.
In our experiments, the thickness of Au on the reflecting side
was 300 nm. The thickness of the insulator was 850 nm. As for
this thickness, it is easy to fabricate the structure and to judge
the change of the resonance wavelength. To use water as a reference, the air as the insulator is replaced to water. The optimum
thickness of Au for surface plasmon resonance around 600 nm
(third mode in Fig. 6) was calculated. Fig. 7 shows the reflection property of the resonant wavelength in relation to the thickness of Au on the incident side, derived by calculation and 3-D
simulation.
The calculated and 3-D simulated results showed almost the
same pattern. Because the calculations do not take account the
glass, Air 1 and Air 2, for reflectance, there is a difference between the calculated and 3-D simulated results. However, it was
found in both results that the optimum thickness of Au on the
850 nm, the opincident side is 40 nm. Therefore, when
timum thickness of Au for a surface plasmon resonance around
600 nm is set at 40 nm. The structural parameters of MIM sensor
are extracted and shown in Table II.

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 58, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2010

TABLE II
THICKNESS OF EACH LAYER IN PROTOTYPE OF SENSOR

Fig. 8. Illustration of how the solution is injected into the Insulator (air).

Fig. 10. Relationship between resonant wavelength and reflectance of sucrose

solution of 20 wt%. (a) Wide range. (b) Narrow range.

Fig. 9. Relationship between resonant wavelength and reflectance of pure

water. (a) Wide range. (b) Narrow range.

B. Characteristics of the Sensor

To use an MIM structure as a sensor, the target solution needs
to be injected between the metal plates. Capillary action is one
method. As shown in Fig. 8, the MIM structure is dipped in
the target solution. As a result, in the prototype MIM structure
shown in Fig. 5, when capillary action was used, it was confirmed that purified water filled the air space with the solution
in approximately 5 min.

First, to confirm that the surface plasmon resonance varies

according to the refractive index of the solution, three kinds of
solution were injected into the air layer of MIM structures. Pure
water was used as the reference solution. The others were suat 20 wt% and ethylene glycol C H O .
crose C H O
The surface plasmon resonances were measured after they had
been injected into MIM structure. Their refractive indexes are
1.333, 1.3622, and 1.430, respectively. Calculation, 3-D simulations, and measurements were carried out on each and are
shown in Figs. 911.
In Figs. 911, for wavelengths longer than 600 nm, the measured results correspond to the calculated and 3-D simulated
results. The absorption observed from 600 to 660 nm is the
fourth mode of the surface plasmon resonance. For wavelengths
shorter 600 nm, a mesh is created based on 600 nm in the simulation, which appears to cause the discrepancy seen between the
measured and simulated results. In the calculation, glass loss is
not included to simplify the equation, and this may have caused
the discrepancy between the measured and calculated results.
When the pure water shown in Fig. 9 is used as the reference
liquid, it is confirmed that the wavelength at the fourth mode of
the surface plasmon resonance shown in Fig. 10 becomes longer
in 20 wt% sucrose solution. Its magnitude of resonant wavelength change is 14.3 nm. In calculations and 3-D simulations,
its variation is 15 and 14.5 nm, respectively, giving a very close
correspondence. As well as ethylene glycol shown in Fig. 11, it
is confirmed that the wavelength of the fourth mode of the surface plasmon resonance becomes longer. The magnitude of the
resonant wavelength change is 45.4 nm. The calculations and

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3959

structure is able to detect differences in refractive index of the

order of 0.7%.
IV. CONCLUSION
This paper describes the analysis and design method of a
MIM structure. When an electromagnetic wave enters a MIM
structure, a surface plasmon on both metals is excited and an
electromagnetic-field standing wave in the insulator is generated. It is clear that this electromagnetic-field standing wave has
various modes depending on the thickness of the insulator, and
a plasmon resonant wave can thus be controlled by changing
the thickness of the insulator. We propose a sensor with a MIM
structure that exploits this phenomenon. When the insulator of
a MIM structure is air, the target solution is drawn into the insulator by capillary action, and the MIM structure will work
as a sensor. This is because the wavelength of the electromagnetic-field standing wave in the insulator is shortened in proportion to the refractive index of the target solution. Our measurements show good agreement between both calculations and 3-D
simulations. The MIM sensor appears to be able to detect differences in refractive index of the order of 0.7%.
REFERENCES

Fig. 11. Relationship between resonant wavelength and reflectance of Ethylene

glycol. (a) Wide range. (b) Narrow range.

Fig. 12. Relationship between concentration of sucrose solution and differential resonant wavelength.

3-D simulations give variations of 41.5 and 44.1 nm, respectively. These also closely correspond. Therefore, it is clear that
the resonant wavelength changes in relation to refractive index.
Finally, Fig. 12 shows the variation of the surface plasmon
resonant wavelength when changing the concentration of sucrose solution.
As a result, the measured result influences the fabrication
error of the thickness of the air layer. It can be said that it is
in good agreement with both the calculated and simulated results. The relationship between the concentration and resonant
wavelength was found to be almost linear. Because the refractive index of pure water is 1.333 and that of sucrose solution at
5 wt% is 1.340, it was confirmed that the sensor using the MIM

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[14] H. A. Macleod, Thin-Film Optical Filters, 3rd ed. Bristol, U.K.: Inst.
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Masaya Tamura (M07) received the B.E. and M.E.
degrees in electrical and electronic engineering from
Okayama University, Okayama, Japan, in 2001 and
2003, respectively.
In 2003, he joined Panasonic Electronic Devices
Corporation Ltd., Osaka, Japan, where he has been
engaged in research and development on microwave
components including lightwaves, especially microwave filters, metamaterials, and plasmonics.
Mr. Tamura is a member of the Institute of Electrical, Information and Communication Engineers
(IEICE), Japan. He was the recipient of the Best Research Award at the 4th
IEEE Hiroshima Student Symposium presented by IEEE Hiroshima Section.

Hiroshi Kagata received the B.E., M.E., and Ph.D.

degrees from Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, in
1984, 1986, and 2005, respectively.
He joined Matsushita Electric Industrial Corporation in 1986. He joined Panasonic Electronic Devices
Corporation, Osaka, Japan, in 2003, where he is
currently a General Manager of the Material Group,
Corporate Components Development Division.
His research interests include microwave dielectric
ceramics and multilayer ceramic devices.
Dr. Kagata is a member of the Ceramic Society of
Japan.