Scholarlink

<p>The escalating global prevalence of chronic kidney disease, diabetes mellitus, and urological malignancies has intensified the demand for sensitive, non-invasive, and cost-effective diagnostic platforms capable of rapid biomarker quantification in clinical and point-of-care settings. Conventional urinalysis methods suffer from inadequate sensitivity for low-concentration analytes, while laboratory-based immunoassay and chromatographic platforms remain incompatible with decentralized deployment. This work presents the rigorous design and theoretical analysis of a one-dimensional defective photonic crystal (1D-DPhC) biosensor specifically engineered for the label-free refractive-index-based detection of clinically significant urinary biomarkers, including glucose, urea, and albumin. The proposed sensor employs a symmetric Si/Al₂O₃ Bragg reflector architecture enclosing a precision-engineered analyte-infiltrated defect cavity, mathematically described by the Transfer Matrix Method (TMM) formulation of Maxwell’s electromagnetic wave equations. The photonic bandgap extends from 560&#xa0;nm to 650&#xa0;nm, accommodating a narrowly resolved defect resonance mode whose spectral position responds linearly to variations in the cavity refractive index over the physiologically relevant range of 1.330–1.400 RIU. In the baseline configuration (<i>N</i> = 12 bilayer periods, defect cavity thickness d_d = 1650&#xa0;nm), the sensor achieves a resonance linewidth of 0.0118&#xa0;nm, a quality factor of 51,240, a maximum sensitivity of 5,535 pm/RIU for urea detection, and an estimated detection limit of 1.9 × 10⁻⁶ RIU. Following systematic cavity optimization (d_d = 1500&#xa0;nm), the maximum achievable sensitivity increases to 360&#xa0;nm/RIU for glucose and 330&#xa0;nm/RIU for urea, the figure of merit (FOM) reaches 33,000 RIU⁻¹, and the best-case detection limit improves to 1.82 × 10⁻⁶ RIU with a signal-to-noise ratio exceeding 63 dB. Electromagnetic field simulations confirm that over 94% of intracavity optical energy is confined within the analyte-filled sensing volume, with an effective mode volume of 0.39(λ/n)³ and a photon lifetime of 16.8 ps. Comparative benchmarking against published 1D photonic crystal biosensors demonstrates that the proposed architecture achieves competitive or superior performance, while remaining compatible with wafer-scale thin-film deposition processes and microfluidic integration. These results establish the 1D-DPhC platform as a compelling candidate for miniaturized, reagent-free, and operator-independent urinalysis instrumentation.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

A high-performance one-dimensional defective photonic crystal biosensor for label-free detection of urinary biomarkers: theoretical design, transfer matrix analysis, and sensing optimization

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年8月5日

查看全文
  • Tobias Topisia,
  • Jacob Wekalao

摘要

The escalating global prevalence of chronic kidney disease, diabetes mellitus, and urological malignancies has intensified the demand for sensitive, non-invasive, and cost-effective diagnostic platforms capable of rapid biomarker quantification in clinical and point-of-care settings. Conventional urinalysis methods suffer from inadequate sensitivity for low-concentration analytes, while laboratory-based immunoassay and chromatographic platforms remain incompatible with decentralized deployment. This work presents the rigorous design and theoretical analysis of a one-dimensional defective photonic crystal (1D-DPhC) biosensor specifically engineered for the label-free refractive-index-based detection of clinically significant urinary biomarkers, including glucose, urea, and albumin. The proposed sensor employs a symmetric Si/Al₂O₃ Bragg reflector architecture enclosing a precision-engineered analyte-infiltrated defect cavity, mathematically described by the Transfer Matrix Method (TMM) formulation of Maxwell’s electromagnetic wave equations. The photonic bandgap extends from 560 nm to 650 nm, accommodating a narrowly resolved defect resonance mode whose spectral position responds linearly to variations in the cavity refractive index over the physiologically relevant range of 1.330–1.400 RIU. In the baseline configuration (N = 12 bilayer periods, defect cavity thickness d_d = 1650 nm), the sensor achieves a resonance linewidth of 0.0118 nm, a quality factor of 51,240, a maximum sensitivity of 5,535 pm/RIU for urea detection, and an estimated detection limit of 1.9 × 10⁻⁶ RIU. Following systematic cavity optimization (d_d = 1500 nm), the maximum achievable sensitivity increases to 360 nm/RIU for glucose and 330 nm/RIU for urea, the figure of merit (FOM) reaches 33,000 RIU⁻¹, and the best-case detection limit improves to 1.82 × 10⁻⁶ RIU with a signal-to-noise ratio exceeding 63 dB. Electromagnetic field simulations confirm that over 94% of intracavity optical energy is confined within the analyte-filled sensing volume, with an effective mode volume of 0.39(λ/n)³ and a photon lifetime of 16.8 ps. Comparative benchmarking against published 1D photonic crystal biosensors demonstrates that the proposed architecture achieves competitive or superior performance, while remaining compatible with wafer-scale thin-film deposition processes and microfluidic integration. These results establish the 1D-DPhC platform as a compelling candidate for miniaturized, reagent-free, and operator-independent urinalysis instrumentation.