Tuberculosis biomedical sensor based on on-chip nanocavity 2D photonic crystal with high sensitivity and quality factor

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) stands as one of the most severe and fatal communicable diseases in the universe, in accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO). Before the COVID-19 pandemic, tuberculosis held the highest mortality rate due to an individual infection, surpassing even HIV/AIDS. The identification of the disease at its initial stages plays a crucial role in patient management and has the potential to enhance the chances of survival. This study presents a unique biomedical sensor based on a two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystal, which demonstrates high accuracy in diagnosing and distinguishing between regular and irregular strains of tuberculosis bacteria. The proposed sensor is designed, presented, and evaluated. It can identify different types of tuberculosis with ultra-high-quality factor and adequate sensitivity in comparison with related photonic detection methods. Also, the presented sensor features a simplistic design with a fabrication possibility using current technologies. The presented sensor exhibited an ultra-quality factor of 10731, an extremely small detection limit of 5.87 × 10-6, and a remarkable sensitivity of 1738.7 nm/RIU. A comprehensive overview of non-optical sensing methods is addressed and linked to the current work. A detailed comparative exploration of this study and associated photonic-based literatures are carried out to verify the efficiency and originality of the proposed sensor.