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Electric Fano resonance-based terahertz metasensors

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Volume 13
Number 44
28 November 2021
Pages 18377-18802

Electric Fano resonance-based terahertz metasensors

Nanoscale
An ultra-sensitive THz-based metasensor was presented rsc.li/nanoscale

based on quasi-BIC Fano resonance, which can distinguish

extremely dilute concentrations (nM) of solutions. By
controlling the degree of geometry asymmetry, the BIC-
inspired mechanism provides an important and simple tool
to engineer and tailor the resonance linewidth and Q -factor,
indicating the ability to realize different biosensors for
different optical regimes. The results open new possibilities ISSN 2040-3372

PAPER
Sayaka Uchida et al.

to realize a nondestructive and non-contact quantitative

Incorporating highly basic polyoxometalate anions
comprising Nb or Ta into nanoscale reaction fields of porous
ionic crystals

inspection of low-concentration solutions, providing a useful

sensing approach for disease prevention and diagnosis. See Chao Chang, Chunhai Fan et al.,
Nanoscale, 2021, 13, 18467.

rsc.li/nanoscale
Registered charity number: 207890
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Electric Fano resonance-based terahertz

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Cite this: Nanoscale, 2021, 13, 18467

metasensors†
Ride Wang, a Lei Xu,b Jiayi Wang,c Lang Sun,a Yanan Jiao,d Yuan Meng,e
Shuo Chen,a Chao Chang*a,f and Chunhai Fan *g

Received 10th July 2021,
Accepted 10th September 2021
DOI: 10.1039/d1nr04477j
rsc.li/nanoscale
An ultra-sensitive THz metasensor is presented based on quasi-BIC Fano resonance, which can distinguish
extremely dilute concentrations (nM) of solutions. It provides a nondestructive sensing approach for disease
prevention and diagnosis. However, the main drawback limiting the performance of THz-based bio-chemical
sensors is the weak interaction between the optical field and the analyte, the characteristic scale of which is
mismatched with the THz wavelength, leading to low sensitivity. Herein, we present an ultra-sensitive THz
metasensor based on an electric Fano resonant metasurface which consists of three gold microrods arranged
periodically. The designed electric Fano resonance provides a strong near-field enhancement near the surface
of the microstructure, significantly boosting the light–analyte interactions and thus the sensitivity. Such an elec-
tric Fano resonance is formed by the interference between a leaky electric dipole resonance and a bound tor-
oidal dipole mode which is a symmetry-protected bound state in the continuum supported by the sub-diffrac-
tive periodic system here. Owing to the strong electric fields generated near the interface of our microstructure
around the toroidal dipole BIC, the proposed structure can distinguish extremely dilute concentrations (nM) of
solutions. Importantly, by controlling the degree of geometrical asymmetry, the BIC-inspired mechanism pro-
vides an important and simple tool to engineer and tailor the linewidth and Q-factor of our proposed electric
Fano resonance, indicating the ability to realize different biosensors for different optical regimes. Our results
open new possibilities to realize a non-destructive and non-contact quantitative inspection of low-concen-
tration solutions, providing a useful sensing approach for disease prevention and diagnosis.

1. Introduction of light. In recent years, metasurfaces have achieved ground-

breaking progress and a wide range of nanophotonics
Metasurfaces are planarized, ultra-thin, patterned artificial applications,1,2 including computational imaging,3 lasing
surfaces composed of optical subwavelength resonators, so spasers,4,5 polychromatic holography,6–8 and achromatic meta-
called meta-atoms, arranged properly to control the paths and lenses.9 By controlling the in-plane geometric parameters of
properties of passing light, including arbitrary control and meta-atoms, such as the orientation, dimension, and shape,
manipulation of the amplitude, phase, and polarization state metasurfaces provide an excellent platform for manipulating
light and controlling the optical responses in a desired
manner.10–14 The focus of research so far has been on
a
Innovation Laboratory of Terahertz Biophysics, National Innovation Institute of
combining15,16 or tailoring the meta-atoms to manipulate light
Defense Technology, Beijing, 100071, China. E-mail: gwyzlzssb@pku.edu.cn
b
Advanced Optics and Photonics Laboratory, Department of Engineering, School of
more efficiently based on optically induced electric and mag-
Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG11 8NS, UK netic Mie-type resonances to explore cutting-edge applications
c
Key Laboratory of Weak-Light Nonlinear Photonics, Ministry of Education, TEDA and innovative physics, such as enhanced nonlinear
Institute of Applied Physics and School of Physics, Nankai University, Tianjin generation,17,18 optical sensing,19 logic operations,20 and mole-
300457, China
d
cular barcoding.21 Resonant metasurfaces with high-quality
Department of General Surgery, First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General
Hospital, Beijing 100853, People’s Republic of China
(Q) factors are of particular interest22 due to their ability to
e
Key Laboratory of Photonics Control Technology of the Ministry of Education, strongly enhance the local optical near-fields and promote
Tsinghua University, China light–matter interactions at a specific frequency within the
f
School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China subwavelength scale.23
g
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University,
Realizing high-Q response was previously mainly associated
Shanghai, 200240, China. E-mail: fchh@sinap.ac.cn
† Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Near-field enhancement
with Fano resonances as the geometric tailoring of the subwa-
of electric field and the quasi-BIC resonance inheriting the BIC. See DOI: velength structure platform introduced asymmetry in a unit
10.1039/d1nr04477j cell.24–26 The featured sharp asymmetric spectral line profiles

This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2021 Nanoscale, 2021, 13, 18467–18472 | 18467

Paper
arise from the close interaction between a discrete (subradiant)
mode and a continuum (superradiant) mode.27,28 This
process, at the Fano resonance, is accompanied by a weak scat-
tering light coupled into free space, resulting in a drastic sup-
pression of radiation loss in metasurface systems. Numerous
designs have been proposed by modifying the geometry of the
subunit or by introducing asymmetric parameters into the
structures, such as ring/disk cavities,29 holes,30 dolmen struc-
tures,31 and compound sub-structures.32 In recent years, gen-
Published on 16 September 2021. Downloaded by Nankai University on 11/19/2021 12:14:36 AM.
erating ultrahigh-Q resonances has been linked to the bound
state in continuum (BIC),33–36 which is an area of growing
interest due to its ability to confine light at resonance and
reduce the leakage rate as desired. An ideal BIC exhibits infi-
nite lifetime and vanishing resonance width, which can exist
only in lossless infinite structures with a perfectly confined
nonradiative mode. In a real system, by breaking the symmetry
of the system or introducing perturbations, an ideal BIC can
be transformed into a quasi-BIC in the form of a supercavity
mode with a finite Q-factor. Indeed, quasi-BICs provide an
elegant approach to control light–matter interaction given
their tailorable Q-factor and near-field enhancement based on
the degree of the introduced perturbations. Recently, quasi-
BICs have been elaborated in metasurfaces formed by sym-
metric dielectric dimer/trimer nanobar structures37,38 or asym-
metric metal dipole bars39 in the unit cell for normal inci-
dence, which have been used for many serviceable functional-
ities such as nano-film sensing,40,41 nonlinear generation
enhancement,37 and lasing.4 Among various research
studies, quasi-BIC corresponding to toroidal dipoles (TDs) has
been of particular concern.42,43 TDs remain vibrant owing to
their relatively weak free space coupling and low radiative loss,
which bring about distinct electromagnetic scenarios such as
observation of non-radiating anapole states and
enhancement of electromagnetic energy localization by con-
centrating time.44 Furthermore, as TD BICs are usually associ-
ated with the excitation of electric dipole (ED) moment, the
total near-field enhancement can be obtained for both inside
the unit and near the surface of the structure, thus
providing multiple opportunities for enhanced light–matter
interactions. These excellent properties can further extend the
unprecedented functions and be suitable for sensing
applications.
Terahertz (THz) technology provides a highly effective
means for security screening, nonionizing, and non-destruc-
tive sensing applications as THz waves have excellent charac-
teristics such as low photon energy and strong
penetrability.45–48 However, owing to the lack of powerful radi-
ation sources and the mismatch between the THz wavelength
and the scattering cross-section of the analyte, the inter- or
intra-molecular vibrations of the analyte in the THz region are
quite weak, which significantly limits the development of
novel THz technology for sensing applications. Combined with
resonant metasurfaces,49 the encountered challenges in
sensing research would be addressed.
In this work, a quasi-BIC Fano resonance was comprehen-
sively demonstrated in a THz metasurface composed of com-
18468 | Nanoscale, 2021, 13, 18467–18472
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Nanoscale
posite microrods based on the coupling of leaky ED resonance
and bound TD modes. The TD resonance results from the
head-to-tail arrangement of the magnetic dipole-type exci-
tation, which is further confirmed by the spherical multipolar
expansion of the induced current density. The features of the
BIC are experimentally observed by adjusting the dimension of
the mid-microrod, which transforms the ideal BIC into a
quasi-BIC with a finite Q-factor. The results are in good agree-
ment with full-wave numerical calculations. Owing to the
strong electromagnetic near-field enhancement of the resona-
tor, in addition, a simple model for the arrays of a detuned-res-
onant-dipole trimer is excavated to render a high biosensing
capability by boosting light–matter interactions, which can
help clearly discriminate low-concentration (nM) solutions.
Our results show that the proposed THz electric Fano resonant
metasurface can serve as a powerful and promising tool for
high-performance sensing of trace biological and chemical
substances.
2. Design and simulation method
The electromagnetic response of an infinite 2D metasurface
comprising identical resonator units with three gold building
blocks was analyzed. Fig. 1a shows the perspective view of the
proposed THz metasensor. The typical partial portion of the
metasurface was fabricated on a 1 mm thick quartz substrate,
and the inset reveals enlarged geometrical dimensions of the
unit cell in Fig. 1b. The sample was patterned using conven-
tion photolithography, followed by magnetron sputtering of
100 nm gold metal and a lift-off process, leaving behind the
resonator array. The individual resonator has a square period
with a pitch size of p × p = 100 μm × 100 μm in both x and y
directions. The width of the microrods is w = 10 μm. The
length of the microrods on both sides of the resonator is fixed
Fig. 1 (a) Schematic view of the proposed metasurface structure sup-
porting Fano resonance quasi-BIC. (b) Optical image of the metasurface.
The inset depicts the geometrical parameters of the unit cell composed
of three gold rods, with a periodicity p = 100 μm. The space between
the rods is d = 32 μm and the width is w = 10 μm. One of the rods has a
fixed dimension of L1 = 70 μm, whereas the other L2 varies as shown at
the center. (c) Calculated transmission spectrum of the metasurface
with a structural parameter L2 = 55 μm. The inset shows the electrical
distribution of Ez at a resonance frequency of f = 1.17 THz.
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Nanoscale
to be L1 = 70 μm, while the dimensions of the mid-microrod
can be varied to investigate the resonant electromagnetic
characteristics of the structure. Microrods are separated by a
distance d = 32 μm along the x-axis whose long axis is aligned
with the y-axis. To validate the response of the designed meta-
surface, numerical calculations based on the 3D finite-differ-
ence time-domain (FDTD) solution software are employed.
Periodic boundary conditions were employed along the x- and
y-directions and the perfectly matched layer (PML) absorbing
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boundary condition was applied in the z-direction in the free
space. Convergent results could be obtained by setting the
mesh sizes smaller than the corresponding minimum dimen-
sion of construction. The material of the microrods was set as
a perfect electrical conductor (PEC) with the conductivity of
the conventional metal in the THz region in the order of 107 S
m−1 so that the Ohmic loss is largely suppressed. The exci-
tation of the resonances with a normal-incidence y-polarized
THz electric field leads to a distinct asymmetric Fano line-
shape ( f = 1.17 THz) with a characteristic dip/peak pair profile
and a higher frequency resonance ( f = 1.42 THz) with L2 =
55 μm as shown in Fig. 1c. The inset shows the Ez electric field
distribution of the lower resonance frequency, which displays
the electric vibration of the microrods corresponding to the
coupling mode. We observed significant near-field enhance-
ment of the electric field (35-fold) in the resonator in Fig. S1 of
the ESI.† As can be seen from Fig. 1c, we also observed a reso-
nance located around 1.45 THz due to the electromagnetic
coupling between array resonators in the vicinity of the
Rayleigh anomalies from the side of longer wavelength.
However, usually this type of lattice resonance is mainly deter-
mined by the periodicity of the system and is not very sensitive
to the structural variations, and hence are not suitable for
sensing applications.50,51
3. Results and discussion
Here, we focus on the lower electric Fano resonance. By inte-
grating the electric current density over the surface of the PEC
microrods, we obtained the surface current which describes
the effective current that creates the scattered field from our
PEC microrods. Combined with the spherical multipolar
decomposition theory, we decomposed the surface current of
the resonator to get the contributions from different multipo-
lar components. Furthermore, based on the obtained current,
we performed the Cartesian multipolar decomposition (in the
ESI†) to analyze the contributions of the electric dipole mode
and toroidal dipole mode.41,52 As shown in Fig. 2a and b, the
optical response is dominated by strong ED and TD exci-
tations. By controlling the length of the microrod in the
center, the coupling between the ED mode py and the nonra-
diating TD mode Ty can be flexibly tuned, thus the Q-factor of
the electric Fano-resonance shape can be adjusted on demand
based on the microphotonic applications. Fig. 2c gives the
electric near-field distributions in the XY plane. As can be
seen, a pronounced poloidal current distribution is clearly
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Fig. 2 (a) Spherical multipolar structure of the metasurface. (b)
Cartesian ED and TD excitations of the metasurfaces. (c) Calculated
electric near-field distributions with induced surface current along the
microrods at the resonant spectral position f = 1.17 THz at the XY plane
(XY : E). The arrows indicate the electric field directions. (d) Toroidal
configuration with magnetic field. The arrows stand for the magnetic
field vectors at the XZ plane (XZ : H).
formed from the three microrods. Furthermore, the closed
electric current for neighboring microrods brings about a
head-to-tail circulating magnetic field arrangement at the XZ
plane which results in a TD (~ T ) resonance excitation as shown
in Fig. 2d, indicating the excitation of TD BIC here. Based on
the right-hand principle, the toroidal moment points in the
y-direction and is coupled with the bright electric dipole
momentum, leading to a sharp Fano resonance quasi-BIC.
An analysis of the effect of altering the dimension of the
mid-microrod on the transmission of ideal-to-quasi BIC was
carried out. In the experiment, the characteristic configur-
ations were measured using a fiber-based 4-f far-field THz
time-domain spectroscopy system at normal incidence. A THz
beam with a 2 mm diameter spot illuminated the metasurface
sample with a size of 5 × 5 mm2. The THz electrical signals of
the transmission pulse varying with time were measured, Em(t )
and Eref(t ) (quartz substrate), with and without the metasur-
face under a dry nitrogen atmosphere. Subsequently, by apply-
ing a fast Fourier transform, we obtained normalized transmit-
tance T = |Em( f )|/|Eref( f )|. The BICs could only be observed by
introducing a leakage channel into the unit cell from the ideal
bound states due to the distortion of the symmetry protection.
The transitions from BICs to sharp quasi-BIC feature
responses are visualized in both simulations and experiments
in Fig. 3a–c. The two trajectories presented are the evolutions
of the transmission dips in the simulation and experimental
spectra with different L2, the trends of which are consistent
with that shown in Fig. 3a and b. The spectral linewidth gradu-
ally narrows as L2 approaches mixed L1, which reflects the
decreasing leakage rate of quasi-BIC. The resonance frequency
displays an evident red-shift as L2 increases. Until the pertur-
bation is reduced toward zero, i.e., L2 = 70 μm, the resonance
linewidth vanishes, and the transmission valley disappears, in
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Fig. 3 (a and b) Simulated and experimental transmission spectra of the
proposed structure with different values of L2. The dashed lines trace
the evolution of the transmission dips whose trends show that they are
consistent. The Fano shape disappears indicating that there is no
leakage in the bound state. (c) Simulated transmission amplitude spectra
by varying L2. (d) Q factor of the simulated (sphere) and experimental
(star) quasi-BIC Fano resonance as a function of asymmetry a.
which the symmetry-protected BIC state with infinite Q-factor
increases. With the excitation of the quasi-BIC mode, one can
serve as an important and simple tool to engineer and tailor
the Q-factor and linewidth of resonance. Notably, despite the
fact that a slight perturbation can result in an infinitely low
leakage of the BIC in theory, it remains challenging to
measure resonant linewidths narrower than 3.8 GHz (the time
length of the scanning signal is 262 ps) because of the resolu-
tion limitation of our equipment. We fit the transmission
intensity spectrum with a typical Fano lineshape formula
View Article Online
Nanoscale
nances. The inevitable scattering losses due to the rough sur-
faces and finite area of the samples also account for the
decrease in the Q factor. Although the measured Q-factor
values were not good enough to reach the expectation, the
reported BIC model theoretically predicts an infinite radiative
quality factor in an ideal scenario. Meanwhile, we experi-
mentally confirmed the BIC features of a subwavelength meta-
surface and observed the optical quasi-bound states in a sym-
metry-compatible radiation continuum.
Furthermore, we analyzed the sensitivity of the proposed
metasensor by varying the refractive index and maintaining a
constant thickness of the analyte. The relationship between
the resonance drifts and the refractive index of the analyte was
established to verify the device’s performance. Fig. 4a shows
the shift results in the case of L2 = 55 μm with a 6 μm thick
analyte but different refractive indices at the quasi-BIC reso-
nance frequency. An evident shift in the resonance frequency
is observed at approximately 93 GHz when varying the refrac-
tive index from n = 1 to n = 1.5. The sensitivity of the metasen-
sor was defined as S = Δf/Δn, where Δf is the frequency shift
due to the coating of the analyte on the metasurface and Δn is
the per unit change in the analyte refractive index. The quasi-
BIC Fano resonance sensitivity was found to be 165 GHz per
refractive index unit (RIU), as shown in Fig. 4b. Meanwhile,
the relatively large resonance linewidth narrowing with
increasing analyte refractive index is presented in Fig. 4c, indi-
cating that the proposed structure acts as an effective platform
to enhance sensing.
To explicitly present the high sensitivity of the proposed
sensing technology, we carried out detailed experiments on
quasi-BIC Fano resonance with different trace liquid concen-
 2
 b 
TFano ¼ a1 þ ja2 þ  ð1Þ
ω  ω0 þ jγ 

to extract the leakage rate, where a1, a2, and b are real constant
factors and ω0 and γ are the resonance frequency and the
damping rate, respectively.53 By inducing the asymmetry para-
meter a = L2 − L1, we map the divergence trajectory of the Q
factor with different a, as illustrated in Fig. 3d, retrieved from
the Fano shape in Fig. 3a and b. The measured Q-factor of
resonance is around 16 with the a = 10 μm in the experiment,
which is calculated as the ratio of resonance frequency to full
width at half maximum (FWHM) in the transmission spectra.
The Q-factor of quasi-BIC evidently tends to infinity at a =
0 μm, which indicates that no amount of energy radiates into
free space due to the symmetry-protected BIC. The discussion
on the advantages of the trimer is that one can find the
similar electric and magnetic field distributions between BIC
and quasi-BIC in Fig. S2 of the ESI,† which indicate that the Fig. 4 (a) Transmission spectra of different refractive indices of the
analyte varied from 1 to 4 with a fixed thickness of 6 μm. The black solid
quasi-BIC resonance inherited the BIC characteristics.
arrow represents the frequency shift. (b) Sensitivity of the metasensor
However, the experimental values of the Q factors are generally depicted by a frequency shift of the dip versus different refractive indices
lower than the simulated values as both radiative and non- of the analyte. (c) Variation in the linewidths of resonance versus the
radiative losses affect the measured linewidth of the reso- change in refractive index.

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Fig. 5 (a) Flow process diagram of sample preparation. (b) Measured
transmission spectra of the designed metasurface-based biosensors
with different IL-6 concentrations: bare (no IL-6/PBS), 0 nM (no IL-6 in
PBS), 1 nM, 10 nM, 50 nM, and 100 nM.
trations. As an example, we targeted Interleukin-6 (IL-6), which
is a multifunctional cytokine with a wide range of biological
activities. It plays an important role in immune response,
inflammatory response, hematopoietic regulation, and tumor
immunity. The detection of IL-6 concentration is of great sig-
nificance for the diagnosis of many clinical diseases.54,55 We
configured uniformly the aqueous phosphate buffered solu-
tion (PBS, 0.05 M K2HPO4 and 0.05 M KH2PO4, pH 7.0, named
as No IL-6) and the aqueous PBS with different concentrations
of IL-6 (named as 1, 10, 50, and 100 nM IL-6) in it. We took a
sufficient amount of the solution and dropped it on the meta-
surface. With a direct squashing technique using a quartz
cover, the sample was prepared for measurement when the
moisture was completely volatilized, as shown in the Fig. 5a.
The THz transmission properties were affected by the dielec-
tric properties of the liquid media with different concen-
trations. The top panel of Fig. 5b experimentally compares the
measured transmission properties of the liquid media without
PBS (black solid lines) and with PBS (No IL-6). Upon increasing
IL-6 (HUABIO) concentrations, the response of the resonator is
significantly red-shifted. Notably, the design can clearly ident-
ify the solution with a solubility difference of 1 nM. Compared
with the top panel, the resonant frequency shift for a concen-
tration of 1 nM is 23 GHz more than that for a concentration
of 0 nM. These examples demonstrated that the possibility of
using this technology to serve as real-time sensors to develop
convenient and portable THz devices for inspecting biological
and chemical trace substance changes.
4. Conclusion
In summary, we experimentally demonstrated an ultrasensitive
THz metasensor based on quasi-BIC Fano resonance, which can
sense solutions with ∼nM concentrations. A comprehensive
analysis of the resonator comprising composite microrods,
which lead to a sharp resonance with significant enhancement
in the high-Q factor, was provided. The Fano resonance can be
attributed to the coupling between the leaky ED and bound TD
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2021
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modes. The physical mechanism of the excited mode coupling
was analyzed by decomposing the surface current of the resona-
tor via the spherical multipolar theory and imaging the electri-
cal and magnetic near-field distributions. Meanwhile, by intro-
ducing a perturbation into the resonator, the transmission
spectra were varied from infinite Q-factor symmetry-protected
BIC to observable quasi-BIC. The electric field of a metallic
metasurface is mainly localized around the metal/dielectric
interface. In contrast, for dielectric metasurfaces, nearly all
energy is concentrated in the dielectric, which is extremely dis-
advantageous for sensing application. The outcomes of this
research present promising possibilities of THz metasurfaces in
ultrasensitive sensing. By employing the mechanism of BIC, it
provides a feasible scheme for further exploring the metallic
ultrahigh-Q factor BIC-based microstructure and promoting
real-time on-chip identification of trace or low-concentration
femtomolar level of chemicals and biomolecules.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgements
Chao Chang acknowledges the support from the XPLORER
PRIZE.
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