This summer, I had the opportunity to work with Dr. Fakhraai and her group on researching the interactions of light incident on nanoscale structures such as gold and silver disks. Nanodisks of many different shapes and sizes are often used as LSPR (localized surface plasmon resonance) sensors because the wavelength of light that they most resonate with is sensitive to changes in local conditions. This makes LSPR sensors a great way to confirm a variety of biomolecular interactions.

My project focused on simulating the resonance of the nanodisks in order to investigate the nanostructure material and geometry which would maximize the sensitivity of these sensors. Sensitivity, in this case, meaning the amount that the peak resonant wavelength of light shifts with changes in the background index. I spent the bulk of my time using Lumerical FDTD (finite-difference time-domain) simulation software. The FDTD method solves Maxwell’s equations in time-steps across a meshed 3D structure, simulating all of the relevant physics of our LSPR sensors.