Strong modulation of plasmons in Graphene with the use of an Inverted pyramid array diffraction grating

Ultrasensitive Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensor with a Feature of Dynamically Tunable Sensitivity and High Figure of Merit for Cancer Detection

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and it is well known that an early detection of cancer in a human body will provide an opportunity to cure the cancer. Early detection of cancer depends on the sensitivity of the measuring device and method, where the lowest detectable concentration of the cancerous cell in a test sample becomes a matter of high importance. Recently, Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) has proven to be a promising method to detect cancerous cells. The SPR method is based on the detection of changes in refractive indices of samples under testing and the sensitivity of such a SPR based sensor is related to the smallest detectable change in the refractive index of the sample. There exist many techniques where different combinations of metals, metal alloys and different configurations have been shown to lead to high sensitivities of the SPR sensors. Based on the difference in the refractive index between a normal healthy cell and a cancerous cell, recently, SPR method has been shown to be applicable to detect different types of cancers. In this work, we propose a new sensor surface configuration that comprises of gold-silver-graphene-black phosphorus to detect different cancerous cells based on the SPR method. Additionally, recently we proposed that the application of electric field across gold-graphene layers that form the SPR sensor surface can provide enhanced sensitivity than that is possible without the application of electrical bias. We utilized the same concept and numerically studied the impact of electrical bias across the gold-graphene layers combined with silver and black Phosphorus layers which forms the SPR sensor surface. Our numerical results have shown that electrical bias across the sensor surface in this new heterostructure can provide enhanced sensitivity compared to the original unbiased sensor surface. Not only that, our results have shown that as the electrical bias increases, the sensitivity increases up to a certain value and stabilizes at a still improved sensitivity value. Such dependence of sensitivity on the applied bias provides a dynamic tunability of the sensitivity and figure-of-merit (FOM) of the sensor to detect different types of cancer. In this work, we used the proposed heterostructure to detect six different types of cancers: Basal, Hela, Jurkat, PC12, MDA-MB-231, and MCF-7. Comparing our results to work published recently, we were able to achieve an enhanced sensitivity ranging from 97.2 to 1851.4 (deg/RIU) and FOM values ranging from 62.13 to 89.81 far above the values presented recently by other researchers.

Enhanced sensitivity in graphene-based SPR biosensors using electrical bias

A theoretical framework to increase the sensitivity of graphene-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensors by the application of electrical bias voltage across the sensor surface is presented. Graphene layers deposited on thin gold film (50 nm) form the sensor surface system where the surface plasmon is excited. The real and imaginary parts of the refractive index of this gold-graphene system can be controlled by tuning its chemical potential using electrical modulation. Numerical calculations show a promising method to enhance the sensitivity of graphene-based SPR biosensors.

Ultra-deep sub-wavelength mode confinement in nano-scale graphene resonator-coupled waveguides

Graphene is capable of supporting very slow waves due to sustaining surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) at THz frequencies, whereas the metal counterpart can support such modes only at optical frequencies. In this paper, a graphene-based resonator-coupled waveguide supporting transverse-magnetic-polarized SPP modes is rigorously studied, which is capable of providing ultra-deep sub-wavelength mode confinement at the working frequency of 40 THz. First, graphene is described both electronically and electromagnetically, as in these regards, graphene's quantum capacitance plays an important role, which is calculated via its DC characteristic. Since we aim to excite extremely slow waves in graphene waveguides, namely, SPP modes, it is necessary to contemplate a non-local conductivity model to characterize graphene. Furthermore, SPP modes create strong fields at the vicinity of a graphene strip in addition to high mode confinement, accentuating the importance of including nonlinear phenomena in characterizing the wave vector of SPP (WVP) modes. Furthermore, the WVP associated with a graphene waveguide is perturbed when placing another waveguide next to it. In this work, these phenomena are explored in detail to design a graphene-based resonator-coupled waveguide, which is superior to a single graphene-based waveguide in terms of confining propagating waves. Here, a comprehensive methodology is established for assessing miniaturized graphene devices, in which nonlinear, coupling, and spatial dispersion phenomena significantly affect their characteristics.

Terahertz electromagnetic fences on a graphene surface plasmon polariton platform

Controlling the loss of graphene can be used in the field of transformation optics. We propose a new concept of electromagnetic fence on a monolayer graphene surface plasmon polariton platform. Using a Dot-Density-Renderer quasicrystal metasurface, we can simulate the absorption of gradient index optics structures. Numerical simulations show that the incident waves to our designed electromagnetic fence are trapped toward the central lines and quickly absorbed by the high-loss region. Two basic types of electromagnetic fence and its composite structures have been designed and analyzed, which exhibit excellent broadband absorbing performances at 8 THz–12 THz. Because of its advantages in controlling the soft-boundary effects and easy manufacturing characteristics, the proposed electromagnetic fence seems very promising for THz–frequency-transformation plasmonics applications.

Tuneable strong optical absorption in a graphene-insulator-metal hybrid plasmonic device

An optical device configuration allowing efficient electrical tuning of near total optical absorption in monolayer graphene is reported. This is achieved by combining a two-dimensional gold coated diffraction grating with a transparent spacer and a suspended graphene layer to form a doubly resonant plasmonic structure. Electrical tuneability is achieved with the inclusion of an ionic gel layer which plays the role of the gate dielectric. The underlying grating comprises a 2-dimensional array of inverted pyramids with a triple layer coating consisting of a reflective gold layer and two transparent dielectric spacers, also forming a vertical micro-cavity known as a Salisbury screen. Resonant coupling of plasmons between the gold grating and graphene result in strong enhancement of plasmon excitations in the atomic monolayer. Plasmon excitations can be dynamically switched off by lowering the chemical potential of graphene. Very high absorption values for an atomic monolayer and large tuning range, extremely large electrostatically induced changes in absorption over very small shifts in chemical potential are possible thus allowing for very sharp transitions in the optical behavior of the device. Overall this leads to the possibility of making electrically tunable plasmonic switches and optical memory elements by exploiting slow modes.