Terahertz reconfigurable metasensor for specific recognition multiple and mixed chemical substances based on AIT fingerprint enhancement

Abstract

Terahertz (THz) fingerprint metasensing is an effective method to identify chemical substances in a rapid and non-destructive way. Currently, two main principles are used in THz metasensing: the change of the real part of permittivity causing the dip resonance frequency deviation, and the fingerprint peak of the imaginary part of permittivity causing the dip resonance splitting (absorption induced transparency, AIT). Most previous work investigated AIT detection for only single chemical substance. The suitable AIT metasensor structure are still required for simultaneously measurement of multiple and mixture chemical substances. In this manuscript, we proposed the N-order concentric rings metasensor for specific recognition multiple and mixed chemical substances based on AIT fingerprint enhancement. The structure has broadband multiple plasmonic resonance dips which are generated by near field dipole resonances. The equivalent circuit model was built to realize the reconfigurable function. Then, 5-order concentric rings structure was designed and fabricated for simultaneously specific recognition of four chemical substances (α-lactose, benzoic acid, vitamin B2 and 2, 5-dichloroanline). The influence of the real and imaginary part of the chemical substances' permittivity on AIT effect had discussed in details. Simulation results indicated that the frequency-deviation of the resonance dip can be stabilized and will not be changed when the concentration of chemical substances is over 20 mg/mL. As shifted plasmonic resonance peaks match the chemical substances’ imaginary part of permittivity fingerprint spectra, the perfect AIT effect can be realized. The metasensor can simultaneously and non-destructively conduct a specific detection of α-lactose, benzoic acid, vitamin B2 and 2,5-dichloroanline, and their mixture. The limit of detections of α-lactose, benzoic acid, vitamin B2 and 2,5-dichloroanline are 8.61 mg/mL, 6.96 mg/mL, 7.54 mg/mL and 8.35 mg/mL, respectively. Also, the sensitivity of the metasensor can reach 0.00211, 0.00208, 0.00211 and 0.00219 (unit: 1/mg/mL), respectively. By utilizing one-way analysis of variance method, the possibility of recognition error for each chemical substance is lower than 0.001. Our metasensor provides a novel and accurate platform for THz fingerprint sensing.