Abstract
One-dimensional photonic crystal (1DPC) sensors have emerged as contenders for traditional surface plasmon resonance sensors, owing to their potential for the detection of bigger molecules and particles due to their higher interaction volume in the sensing medium. Two-dimensional layered nanomaterials, most notably graphene and dichalcogenides (e.g., MoS2, MoSe2, WS2, and WSe2), have shown higher refractive index sensitivity because of their absorption as well as adsorption property. The proposed configuration of 1DPC presented consists of alternate layers of the aforementioned nanomaterials and silicon. The performance parameters, namely the sensitivity, resolution, quality factor, and the evanescent field penetration depth, are calculated and compared with 1DPC having poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) in place of silicon. Increased shift in resonance angle and quality factor are observed by replacing PMMA with silicon, but at the cost of decreased resolution. Further, our results show that although the sensitivity and quality factor of the 1DPC sensor is less than that of the conventional surface plasmon resonance sensor (SPR) with a gold thin film, it has much higher resolution and penetration depth to make it suitable for large molecules.
Highlights
The quantification and characterization of biomolecular interactions is of critical importance for a wide range of applications ranging from healthcare to more fundamental research in proteomics and genomics
While there are several techniques fitted for that particular purpose, label-free sensing methods, especially those relying on measuring changes of the refractive index (RI), such as surface plasmon resonance (SPR) [1], Braggs gratings [2], and whispering gallery modes [3] to name a few, have gained prominence in the research community
Rmin will occur at the incidence angle greater than the critical angle between the prism and water, i.e., θres > θc = sin−1 nc /nprism = 61.39◦ [7]
Summary
The quantification and characterization of biomolecular interactions is of critical importance for a wide range of applications ranging from healthcare to more fundamental research in proteomics and genomics. While there are several techniques fitted for that particular purpose, label-free sensing methods, especially those relying on measuring changes of the refractive index (RI), such as surface plasmon resonance (SPR) [1], Braggs gratings [2], and whispering gallery modes [3] to name a few, have gained prominence in the research community. This is due to their sensing performances and their ability to conduct real-time measurements, providing critical information on binding constants which are otherwise not possible to obtain. The general analytical analysis of the performance parameters characterizing the
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