Abstract
Surface lattice resonances (SLRs) in metasurfaces have become a transformative platform for subwavelength optical devices. However, current high quality-factor (high-Q) SLR implementations are fundamentally limited by their dependence on homogeneous dielectric environments. To overcome this limitation, we introduce guided-surface lattice resonances (gSLRs) by integrating nanoparticle arrays within slab waveguides. This configuration facilitates efficient coupling between scattered light and Bloch modes, enabling high-Q multimodal resonances even in index-discontinuous environments, realizing a quality-factor (Q-factor) of 1489. The coupling strength and resonance intensity of these multimodal gSLRs can be continuously modulated by adjusting the vertical displacement of the nanoparticle arrays within the slab layers. To augment the sensitivity to local dielectric variations, we investigate gSLRs in metasurfaces integrated with metallic substrates, demonstrating suitability for biosensors. A mathematical sensing model, incorporating biochemical reaction kinetics and optical responses, is established and validated through bovine serum albumin (BSA) sensing, achieving a limit-of-detection as low as 0.65 pM.
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Acknowledgements
Y.P. acknowledges the funding support of State Key Laboratory of Robots and Systems (Grant No. SKLRS202505B) and Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province (Grant No. YQ2022E23). X.D. acknowledges funding from National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 62275063). Y.Z. acknowledges the funding support of Temple Foundation Endowed Teaching Fellowship in Engineering #2.
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S.H., X.D., and Y.P. conceived the idea and conducted the experiments. S.H. and K.Y. performed the simulations. H.W. contributed to the figure set. S.H., K.Y., X.D., W.H., X.Z., Y.Z., and Y.P. analyzed the experimental results. All the authors contributed to the preparation of the manuscript.
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Huang, S., Yao, K., Wang, H. et al. High-Q multimodal guided-surface lattice resonances in index-discontinuous environments. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-71583-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-71583-w
