Analysis of GaN-based 2D Photonic Crystal Sensor for Real-time Detection of Alcohols

Abstract

The present research proposes an extensive assay of photonic band gap (PBG) characteristics for transverse electric field polarization in two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystal (PhC) structures, with a vision to sense different groups of alcohol like methanol, ethanol, propanol, butanol and phenol. The plane wave expansion (PWE) technique is implemented for realization of PBG in two types of lattice configurations such as square lattice and triangular lattice with circular air holes. Various structure parameters like radius of the circular air holes, lattice constant, nature of the background material, arrangement of air holes and period of air holes are meticulously optimized for envisaging a complete band gap. A variety of unpredicted trends are observed in the simulation outcomes, which include a substantial shift in band gap width, band gap size, reflected wavelength, reflected light intensity and transmitted light intensity for different types of alcohols. Also, the effect of air filling fraction on the band gap size has been investigated by selecting different radius of circular air holes. Apart from this, high sensitivity of 1645 nm/RIU and resolution of $$6.07\times {10}^{-5}$$ RIU is attained with the proposed structures, which pave the path for different bio-sensing applications.