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Design of a high-sensitivity graphene-silicon hybrid micro-disk in a square cavity whispering gallery mode biosensor

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Abstract

Whispering gallery mode (WGM)–based sensors offer high sensitivity, good linearity, and wide measurement range and hence are promising for the field of biosensors. In this paper, a novel Si-graphene-integrated micro-disk biosensor is presented with increased Q-factor and sensitivity. The structure is composed of a Si micro-disk on top of six graphene layers. This composite structure is placed inside a square cavity which is etched in Su-8 substrate. It is shown that graphene reduces the bandwidth and FWHM of the biosensor which can be attributed to the high absorption due to optical transitions in graphene. On the other hand, the square cavity increases the surface area of the resonator thus reducing the electric field losses of the structure. The structure is numerically simulated by FDTD method and optimized for highest sensitivity and Q-factor. It is shown that in the proposed structure, two WGM modes are present. The sensitivity for the first and second modes are as high as 355.5 nm/RIU and 326 nm/RIU, respectively and the figure of merit (FOM) is equal to 640.5 RIU−1 for the first mode and 480.8 RIU−1 for the second mode. This biosensor can be used to detect pathogens such as cancer cells, glucose, influenza, and corona.

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Data Availability

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon responsible request.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

    Fatemeh Aghaei, Saeed Golmohammadi & Hadi Soofi

  2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran

    Hamid Bahador

Authors
  1. Fatemeh Aghaei
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  2. Saeed Golmohammadi
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  3. Hamid Bahador
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  4. Hadi Soofi
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by F. Aghaei, S. Golmohammadi, H. Bahador, and H. Soofi. The first draft of the manuscript was written by F. Aghaei, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Saeed Golmohammadi.

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This article is part of the topical collection: “Nanoarchitectonics for Functional Particles and Materials”

Guest Editor: Katsuhiko Ariga

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Aghaei, F., Golmohammadi, S., Bahador, H. et al. Design of a high-sensitivity graphene-silicon hybrid micro-disk in a square cavity whispering gallery mode biosensor. J Nanopart Res 25, 76 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-023-05724-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-023-05724-3

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