Abstract-The terahertz metamaterials for sensitive biosensors in the detection of ethanol solutions

Author links open overlay panelFuyu Li, Ke He, Tingting Tang, Yinghui Mao, Rui Wang, Chaoyang Li, Jian Shen,

                                               

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0030401820307045 

Metamaterials have attracted much attention due to their subwavelength characteristics, especially in the field of unlabeled refractive index sensing. Because biomolecular molecules have special biological fingerprint spectra in terahertz band, high sensitivity sensor components can be realized by using the special electromagnetic response of metamaterials. In this paper, a novel biosensor based on electromagnetic induced reflection is designed. We find that the asymmetrically fractured double-ring resonator can effectively enhance the fano-resonance of electromagnetic induction reflection, where the resonance position occurs at 1.57 THz. Oscillating Lorentz model shows that when the resonant detuning continues to increase, the bright mode and the dark mode are strongly coupled. When the light mode decreases, the radiation loss also decreases, which induces the decrease of resonance ability. The sensitivity of pure ethanol solution (analyte) under  coating thickness is 103.7 GHz/RIU, 107.1 GHz/RIU and 112.05 GHz/RIU, respectively. The sensitivity and full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the sensor are studied from the perspectives of analyte concentration, thickness, and proportion, respectively. The results show the great potential of electromagnetic metamaterials as sensitive sensors in biological solution detection.