Khan Yousuf, Butt Muhammad A, Kazanskiy Nikolay L, Khonina Svetlana N
Technological Electronics, Institute of Nanostructure Technologies and Analytics, University of Kassel, Heinrich-Plett-Str.40, 34132 Kassel, Germany.
Nanophotonics Research Group, Department of Electronic Engineering, Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences, Quetta 87300, Pakistan.
Materials (Basel). 2022 May 3;15(9):3277. doi: 10.3390/ma15093277.
In this work, fabrication of a dielectric photonic crystal device and numerical study of its spectral characteristics as a refractive index sensor are presented for near infrared range. The proposed nanosensor device is composed of low-cost dielectric materials, i.e., silicon dioxide and niobium pentoxide, and is fabricated using focused ion-beam milling lithography. In the first part, the fabrication process of the device is discussed, along with the process parameters and their effects on the structural properties of the resulting photonic crystal elements. In the second part, the device is numerically tested as a sensor for the biological refractive index range of 1.33 to 1.4. The performance considerations of the biosensor device are studied for 12 different structural profiles based on the fabrication results. It is shown that the angular-wall-profile of the fabricated structures downgrades the performance of the sensor, and the optimum value of hole depth should be in the range of 930-1500 nm to get the best performance. A sensitivity of 185.117 nm/RIU and a figure of merit of 9.7 were recorded for the optimum design of the device; however, a maximum sensitivity of 296.183 nm/RIU and a figure-of-merit of 13.184 RIU were achieved. The device is recommended for a variety of biosensing applications due to its inert material properties, stable design and easy integration with fiber-optic setups.
在这项工作中，展示了一种用于近红外范围的介电光子晶体器件的制造及其作为折射率传感器的光谱特性的数值研究。所提出的纳米传感器器件由低成本的介电材料，即二氧化硅和五氧化二铌组成，并使用聚焦离子束铣削光刻技术制造。在第一部分中，讨论了器件的制造过程，以及工艺参数及其对所得光子晶体元件结构特性的影响。在第二部分中，对该器件作为生物折射率范围为1.33至1.4的传感器进行了数值测试。基于制造结果，对12种不同结构轮廓的生物传感器器件的性能进行了研究。结果表明，所制造结构的角壁轮廓会降低传感器的性能，并且孔深度的最佳值应在930 - 1500 nm范围内以获得最佳性能。该器件的最佳设计记录了185.117 nm/RIU的灵敏度和9.7的品质因数；然而，实现了296.183 nm/RIU的最大灵敏度和13.184 RIU的品质因数。由于其惰性材料特性、稳定的设计以及易于与光纤装置集成，该器件被推荐用于各种生物传感应用。
