Ultra-high-sensitive plasmonic sensor based on asymmetric hexagonal nano-ring resonator for cancer detection

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Noah

A highly sensitive optical sensor is proposed using two metal-insulator-metal waveguides coupled to an asymmetric hexagonal nano-ring resonator for detecting cancerous cells. The design enables refractive-index based sensing for biological, chemical, biomedical diagnosis, and bacteria detection. Sensitivity is optimized by controlling resonator angle, reaching a maximum of about 1800 nm/RIU. Asymmetry increases sensitivity by about 81% versus a symmetric resonator, with blood cancer cells showing strong improvement. Performance is numerically analyzed via FDTD using PML.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

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Pages13

Reading Time33 min

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Introduction

Surface plasmon polaritons and integrated nanooptics devices

Optical sensors for cancer detection

Proposed sensor topology and performance goals

Heliyon 10 (2024) e34439 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Heliyon journal [homepage:](homepage: www.cell.com/heliyon)[ www.cell.com/heliyon](homepage: www.cell.com/heliyon) | Research article
Ultra-high-sensitive plasmonic sensor based on asymmetric hexagonal nano-ring resonator for cancer detection
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Sara Gholinezhad Shafagh , Hassan Kaatuzian
Photonics Research Lab. (PRL), Electrical Engineering Dept, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran | | | | --- | --- | --- | | A R T I C L E I N F O | | A B S T R A C T | | Keywords:
Sensitive sensor
Surface plasmon polaritons Asymmetric nano-ring resonator Cancer cells
Finite difference time domain method Sensitivity | | A highly sensitive sensor based on two metal-insulator-metal waveguides coupled to an asymmetric hexagonal nano-ring resonator detecting cancerous cells is proposed. This novel design is utilized to facilitate the sensing of human cells. The sensing mechanism of the presented optical structure can act as a refractive index measurement in biological, chemical, biomedical diagnosis, and bacteria detection, which leads to achieving high sensitivity in the structure. The main goal is to achieve the highest sensitivity concerning the optimum design. As a result, the sensitivity of the designed topology reaches a maximum value of about 1800 nm/RIU (nm/refractive index unit) by controlling the angle of the resonator. It is evident that the sensitivity parameter is improved, and the reason for the increase in sensitivity is due to the asymmetry of the resonator, which hasan 81 % increase in sensitivity compared to the symmetrical resonator, especially for blood cancer cells. The maximum quality factor obtains 131.65 with a FOM of 90.4 (RIU − 1). The sensing performance of this proposed structure is numerically investigated using the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method with the perfectly matched layer (PML). Accordingly, the suggested high sensitivity sensor makes this structure a promising therapeutic candidate for sensing applications that can be used in on-chip optical devices to produce highly complex integrated circuits. | 1. Introduction Over the past few years, with the rapid development of optical technology and the rapidly increasing demand for integrated nanooptics devices, light field manipulation is urgently required. Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are electromagnetic excitations propagating along the interface between a metal layer and an insulator. Photonic devices based on SPPs can manipulate and confine light on the subwavelength scale [1]. SPP devices are good candidates for the realization of complex integrated optical circuits such as plasmonic filters [2–6], switches [7,8], modulators [9], couplers [10,11], multiplexers [12,13], demultiplexers [14–16], detectors [17, 18], splitters [19], nanolasers [20], amplifiers [21,22], power divider structures [3], solar cells [23], metamaterials [24,25], metasurface structures [26], logical gates [27,28], diodes [29], color filters [30], light scattering [31,32], and slow light devices [33–35]. Furthermore, some novel structures based on hybrid plasmonic photonic crystals have been proposed [36,37]. In recent years, researchers have suggested the optical sensor as a particular type of plasmonic structure due to its outstanding properties for direct sensing processes. SPPs are used in optical devices, specially applications of sensors related to cancer detection. Such optical diagnosis can be implemented in refractive index sensors [38–42]. Applications of such sensors span many fields of biological, chemical, biomedical diagnosis, and bacteria detection, which have been intensively surveyed recently [43,44]. The * Corresponding author. E-mail address: [hsnkato@aut.ac.ir](hsnkato@aut.ac.ir) (H. Kaatuzian). [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e34439](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e34439) Received 27 April 2024; Received in revised fo

FAQs

What sensing mechanism does the proposed structure rely on?

It uses an electromagnetic field that generates concentrated plasmons on the metal surface. These surface plasmons respond strongly to refractive-index variations of the sample.

How is the sensor’s sensitivity optimized?

Sensitivity is optimized by controlling the angle of the resonator. The asymmetry of the resonator also improves sensitivity compared with a symmetric design.

What computational method is used to investigate sensing performance?

The sensing performance is numerically investigated using the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method with perfectly matched layer (PML).

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Noah