Local electric field enhancement and polarization effects in a surface-enhanced Raman scattering fiber sensor with chessboard nanostructure

A surface-enhanced Raman scattering fiber sensor with chessboard nanostructure on a cleaved fiber facet is studied by finite-difference time-domain method. Surface plasmons at the metal coated nanostructured fiber facet can be effectively excited and strong local electric field enhancement is obtained. Studies on the influence of light polarization demonstrate a large polarization dependence of the field enhancement factor while the polarization effects on the plasmon resonance wavelength are relatively small. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.