We propose a kind of plasmonic whispering gallery modes highly localized on
the exterior surface of a metal-coated microresonator. This exterior (EX)
surface mode possesses high quality factors at room temperature, and can be
efficiently excited by a tapered fiber. The EX mode can couple to an interior
(IN) mode and this coupling produces a strong anti-crossing behavior, which not
only allows conversion of IN to EX modes, but also forms a long-lived
anti-symmetric mode. As a potential application, the EX mode could be used for
a biosensor with a sensitivity high up to 500 nm per refraction index unit, a
large figure of merit, and a wide detection range
