High performance of terahertz sensor based on double-split hexagonal ring metamaterial

• Published in: IEEE sensors journal Vol. 23; no. 19; p. 1
• Main Authors: Cai, Weijian, Zhu, Jianfang, Yang, Youpeng, Wang, Xiaoran, Qian, Zhengfang, Fan, Shuting
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-10-2023; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Biosensors; Glucose; Metamaterials; Refractive index; Refractivity; Resonant frequency; Sensitivity; sensor; Sensors; Serum proteins; terahertz
• ISSN: 1530-437X; 1558-1748
• DOI: 10.1109/JSEN.2023.3308157

Terahertz has significant potential applications in biosensing, but its detection sensitivity still needs to be improved. Metamaterials can effectively improve terahertz sensing sensitivity due to their field-enhancing properties. In this work, we designed and fabricated a double-open hexagonal ring metamaterial with a high refractive index sensitivity of 430 GHz/RIU. The resonant properties of metamaterials were demonstrated by both simulations and experiments. The sensing performance were tested with different concentrations of glucose and bovine serum protein solutions. The results showed that the sensitivity of the metamaterial to glucose and bovine serum protein solution reached 0.37 GHz/(mg/dL) and 36.44 GHz/(mg/mL), respectively, while the detection limits of glucose and bovine serum protein solution reached 9.867 mg/dL and 0.16 mg/mL, respectively. The proposed metamaterial sensor has potential application scenarios in the terahertz biomedical field.