Multilayer Plasmonic Biosensor with Enhanced Evanescent Field Confinement for Early Detection of Blood Cancer
摘要
In this study, we developed and optimized a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor to detect blood cancer biomarkers. The sensor was studied with different metallic layers of silver (Ag), gold (Au), copper (Cu), and aluminum (Al), and dielectric substrates BK7, K5, and BAK1. To improve the performance of the sensor, functional layers of silver arsenic sulfide (Ag₃AsS₃), silver gallium sulfide (AgGaS₂), and aluminum antimonide (AlSb) were considered on top of the metallic films. Sensitivity, quality factor (QF), detection accuracy (DA), and full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM) sensor characteristics were studied based on the angular interrogation method using a transfer matrix approach at a wavelength of 633 nm. The optimized configuration: BK7–Ag (54 nm)–Ag₃AsS₃ (1 nm)–AgGaS₂ (3 nm)–AlSb (2*0.53 nm)–analyte exhibited significantly improved characteristics, with a sensitivity of 398.1°/RIU, a QF of 142.45 RIU⁻¹, and superior DA of 1.994; when compared to conventional metallic configurations. The utilization of noble metals in combination with chalcogenide and antimonide materials results in a magnified field confinement and sharper resonance. The biosensor demonstrated potential for early-stage detection of leukemia and for further exploration in biomedical sensing and drilling down in healthcare diagnostics. This study is completely based on numerical simulations performed via transfer-matrix method (TMM) in MATLAB.