Two-Dimensional Transition Metal Dichalcogenides-Based High Sensitivity Lossy Mode Refractive Index Sensor

Abstract

Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have very potential properties for sensing applications. Hence, a lossy-mode resonance (LMR) refractive index (RI) sensor based on TMDs- indium-tin-oxide (ITO) configuration is proposed for high imaging sensitivity. A significant advantage of the proposed LMR sensor is that can achieve sharp resonance curves for both the transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) polarizations while the traditional surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor can only support TM polarizations. Through theoretical analysis, we found that the imaging sensitivity can be improved to 6438 RIU−1 ( $\text{n}_{s}=1$ .330) and 6695 RIU−1 ( $\text{n}_{s}=1$ .340) for TE and TM polarizations, respectively. It is an existing improvement of about 85.84 times and 11.5 times correspond to the single ITO-based LMR sensor without TMDs, respectively. This article reveals the design rules of the LMR sensor after system research, which provides guidance for further research and applied in environmental monitoring, biomolecules inspection, and so on.