Issue 8, 2023

A terahertz metasurface sensor with fingerprint enhancement in a wide spectrum band for thin film detection

Abstract

Terahertz spectroscopy is a powerful tool to resolve molecular fingerprints by detecting their vibrational and rotational modes, and has great application potential in chemistry and biomedicine. However, the limited sensitivity and poor specificity restrict its applications in these areas, where trace amounts of analytes need to be identified effectively and accurately. Here, we propose a sensing scheme for enhancing molecular fingerprints based on angle-scanning of terahertz waves on an all-silicon metasurface. The metasurface consists of a periodic array of silicon cylinder dimers arranged in a square lattice. An ultrasharp guided mode resonance governed by bound states in the continuum can be excited by elaborately arranging the silicon cylinder dimers. By utilizing the angle-scanning strategy, two kinds of saccharides are successfully identified with extremely high sensitivity. Specifically, the detection limits for lactose and glucose are 1.53 μg cm−2 and 1.54 μg cm−2, respectively. Our study will provide a new idea for the detection of trace amounts of analytes, and promote the application of terahertz technology in chemistry and biomedicine.

Graphical abstract: A terahertz metasurface sensor with fingerprint enhancement in a wide spectrum band for thin film detection

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
24 Nov 2022
Accepted
09 Mar 2023
First published
09 Mar 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Nanoscale Adv., 2023,5, 2210-2215

A terahertz metasurface sensor with fingerprint enhancement in a wide spectrum band for thin film detection

X. Zhang, J. Liu and J. Qin, Nanoscale Adv., 2023, 5, 2210 DOI: 10.1039/D2NA00837H

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