MXene coated concave shaped microchannel PCF SPR biosensor for the detection of HIV and sickle cell anaemia

Abstract

The paper presents the analysis and discussions on a Surface Plasmon resonance (SPR) based Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCF) Refractive index (RI) Biosensor, designed specifically to detect two of the most widespread diseases—HIV-caused AIDS and Sickle cell anaemia. The detection is purely dependent on the RI of the affected cells (1.42 for HIV and 1.38 for Sickle cell anaemia), compared to 1.35 for normal cells. The proposed RI biosensor has concave-shaped microchannels on either side of the PCF acting as a channel, where the plasmonic material interacts with the bio-analytes of HIV-infected and sickle cells. Additionally, a layer of MXene, an emerging 2D plasmonic enhancer is coated on the microchannels, to enhance the sensor performance in terms of sensitivity and confinement loss. Moreover, the optimized structure achieved wavelength sensitivities of 10,571.43 nm/RIU and 3500 nm/RIU for the Gold PCF sensor, and 14,142.86 nm/RIU and 4000 nm/RIU for MXene-Gold PCF sensor for HIV-infected cell and Sickle cell anaemia, respectively. Hence, the proposed SPR biosensor using MXene has the potential for the early detection of HIV and Sickle cell anaemia.