High-Performance Plasmonic Biosensor for Blood Cancer Detection: Achieving Ultrahigh Figure-of-Merit

Abstract

A highly sensitive hybrid structure for biosensing application based on surface plasmon resonance for the detection of blood cancer has been proposed in this article. The biosensor comprises of a CaF₂ Prism, Ag metal, an oxide layer Al₂O₃ and a 2D nanomaterial graphene, which is grounded on Kretschmann configuration. The transfer matrix method is used to interrogate the performance parameters of proposed biosensor. To analyze the change in refractive index, the analyte has been considered over the graphene layer. To achieve maximum sensitivity and minimum reflectance the thickness of Ag, Al₂O₃ layers and number of graphene layers have been optimized. The suggested structure’s sensitivity can be enhanced up to 427.43 deg/RIU with the optimized value for the detection accuracy and FOM of 0.7027 deg⁻¹ and 217 RIU⁻¹ respectively. The work focuses on the development of plasmonic sensors with high performance and stability. Role of different material layers is also analyzed in terms of enhancement in sensitivity and evanescent field. The paper offers better optimization technique and selection of material than previously reported works, which eventually leads to enhancement in both sensitivity and FOM. This research could lead to the development of a useful biological sample sensing tool for the quick and precise detection of the blood cancer in its early stages.