A Plasmonic Refractive Index Sensor Using a Water-Based Metamaterial Absorber

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Department of Electrical Engineering, The Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), Tehran. Iran

Abstract

A structure for refractive index sensing application in THz band is proposed and analyzed in this paper. This structure is comprised of a golden plasmonic metamaterial absorber in which water is used as a dielectric and a thin TOPAS layer-which does not have a significant effect on the performance of the sensor- is used for the separation of analyte and water. This structure has an absorption of 99.2% at resonance frequency of 2.8725 THz. Lateral absorption frequency shift occurs due to variation in the refractive index (RI) of the analyte. This structure can be used for refractive index measurement in the range of 1-1.4 with full-width half maximum (FWHM), sensitivity (S), the figure of merit (FoM), and quality factor (Q-factor) in the ranges of 0.01647 THz, 427-644 GHz per refractive index unit (RIU), 6.3-26.5 and 26.23-175.5, respectively. It is worth mentioning that for a limited refractive index range of 1.1 to 1.15, the values of FWHM, Q-factor, and FoM enhance to 0.0053327 THz, 516, and 90, respectively. The simplicity, compactness, and ease of fabrication due to the use of water as a dielectric along with appropriate refractive index sensitivity and FoM help this structure to be used in biological, medical, and environment sensing applications.

Keywords

Main Subjects


  1. Chen, Y. Cheng, and H. Luo, “Temperature Tunable Narrow-Band Terahertz Metasurface Absorber Based on InSb Micro-Cylinder Arrays for Enhanced Sensing Application, ”IEEE Access, vol. 8,  pp. 82981-82988, 2020
  2. Y. Azab, M. F. O. Hameed, A. M. Nasr and S. S. A. Obayya, “Highly Sensitive Metamaterial Biosensor for Cancer Early Detection, ”IEEE Sensors Journal, vol. 21, no. 6, pp. 7748-7755, March. 2021.
  3. S. Saadeldin, M. F. O. Hameed, EM. A. Elkaramany, and SS. A. Obayya, “Highly Sensitive Terahertz Metamaterial Sensor,” IEEE Sensor Journal, vol. 19, no.18, pp. 7993-7999, Sept. 2019.
  4. Li, K. He, T. Tang, Y. Mao, R. Wang, C. Li, and j. Shen, “The terahertz metamaterials for sensitive biosensors in the detection of ethanol solutions,” Opt. Communications, vol. 475, Nov. 2020.
  5. Mohanty, O. P. Acharya, B. Appasani, S. K. Mohapatra, and M. S. Khan, “Design of a Novel Terahertz Metamaterial Absorber for Sensing Applications,” IEEE Sensor Journal, vol. 21, no.20, pp. 22688-22694, Oct. 2021.
  6. Askari, “A near infrared plasmonic perfect absorber as a sensor for hemoglobin concentration detection,” Opt Quant Electron, vol. 53, 2021.
  7. Vafapour, W. Troy, and A. Rashidi, “Colon Cancer Detection by Designing and Analytical Evaluation of a Water-based THz Metamaterial Perfect Absorber,” IEEE Sensor Journal, vol. 21, no. 17, pp. 19307–19313, Sept. 2021.
  8. Vafapour et al, “The potential of Refractive Index Nanobiosensing using a Multi-band Optically Tuned Perfect Light Metamaterial Absorber,” IEEE Sensor Journal, vol. 21, no. 12, pp. 13786–13793, Jun. 2021.
  9. Pan, Y. Yan, Y. Ma, and D. Shen, “A Terahertz Metamaterial Based on Electromagnetically Induced Transparency Effect and its Sensing Performance,” Opt. Communications, vol. 431, pp. 115–119, Jan. 2019.
  10. Wang, W. Cheng, J. Qin, and Z. Han, “Terahertz refractive index sensor based on the guided resonance in a photonic crystal slab,” Opt. Communications, vol. 434, pp. 163–166, 2019.
  11. Banerjee et al, “A Terahertz Metamaterial Absorber Based Refractive Index Sensor with High Quality Factor, ”2021 13th International Conference on Electronics, Computers and Artificial Intelligence (ECAI), 2021, pp. 1-4.
  12. Hishida, and K. Tanaka, “Transition of the hydration state of a surfactant accompanying structural transitions of self-assembled aggregates,” J Phys Condens Matter, vol. 24, no. 28, Jul. 2012.
  13. Hsiao, A. Abass, J. Fischer, R. Alaee, A. Wickberg, M. Wegener, and C. Rockstuhl, “Enhancement of second-harmonic generation in nonlinear nanolaminate metamaterials by nanophotonic resonances,” Opt. Express, vol. 24, 2016.
  14. Saiful Islam et al, “Experimental Study on Glass and Polymers: Determining the Optimal Material for Potential Use in Terahertz Technology,” IEEE Sensor Journal, vol. 8, pp. 97204–97214, 2020.
  15. Banerjee, P. Dutta, A. V. Jha, B. Appasani, and M. S. Khan, “A Biomedical Sensor for Detection of Cancer Cells Based on Terahertz Metamaterial Absorber,” IEEE Sensor Letters, vol. 6, no. 6, pp. 1–4, June. 2022.
  16. Xiong et al, “Terahertz Sensor With Resonance Enhancement Based on Square Split-Ring Resonators,” IEEE Access, vol. 9, pp. 59211–59221, 2021.
  17. Cong, and R. Singh, “Sensing with THz metamaterial absorbers,” physics.optics, Aug. 2014.
  18. Nickpay, M. Danaie, and A. Shahzadi, “Highly Sensitive THz Refractive Index Sensor Based on Folded Split‑Ring Metamaterial Graphene Resonators,” Plasmonics, vol. 17, pp. 237–248, 2022.
  19. M. Silalahi, YP. Chen, Y. Shin, YS. Chen, X. Lin, J. Liu, and C. Huang, “Floating terahertz metamaterials with extremely large refractive index sensitivities,” Photon. Res, vol. 9, pp. 1970–1978, 2021.
  20. Banerjee, U. Nath, P. Dutta, A. V. Jha, B. Appasani, and N. Bizon, “A Theoretical Terahertz Metamaterial Absorber Structure with a High Quality Factor Using Two Circular Ring Resonators for Biomedical Sensing,” Inventions, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 78, 2021.