Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing 152 (2022) 107109

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Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mssp

Prediction of the resistivity of YBa2Cu3O7-δ superconductor by a highly

sensitive one-dimensional phononic crystal sensor
Z.A. Alrowaili a, *, Hisham Mohamed Gaber b, Lama Sh Aljoufi c, Hussein A. Elsayed b,
T.A. Taha a, Ahmed Mehaney b
a
Physics Department, College of Science, Jouf University, P.O.Box:2014, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia
b
TH-PPM Group, Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, 62512, Egypt
c
Department of Mathematics, College of Science, Jouf University, P.O. Box: 2014, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: In this research, we have theoretically introduced a new application of one-dimensional (1D) phononic crystals
Phononic crystal (PnCs) manifested as a sensor for the variations in porosity ratios of a high Tc superconductor material
Porosity sensor (Ba2Cu3O7-δ). Notably, there is a massive need for accurate detection of the changes in the porosity ratio of the
Transmission spectra
YBa2Cu3O7-δ material due to the dependence of its resistivity and critical current density Jc as well on the
Transfer matrix method
porosity ratio. Meanwhile, the changes in the porosity ratio could be demonstrated by tuning a resonant mode in
Superconductor
Sensor the transmission spectrum of the 1D PnC. Therefore, we considered the YBa2Cu3O7-δ as a defect layer inside the
periodic design (Lead/Epoxy)N of the 1D PnC. Herein, the transfer matrix method (TMM) is used to calculate the
transmission spectra of the proposed design. Our findings showed that the proposed sensor is capable of detecting
and sensing the variations in the porosity ratio of YBa2Cu3O7-δ as well as indicating its mechanical properties
with relatively high performance and sensitivity. Moreover, the obtained results have unfolded a very sensitive
effect in the resonant peak position based on the physical properties of YBa2Cu3O7-δ. Since the position of the
resonant peak is highly sensitive to the smallest changes in the porosity ratio. Finally, the investigated sensitivity
and quality factor can reach the values of 75.04 kHz and 186.474, respectively, for a 1% change in the porosity of
YBa2Cu3O7-δ. In a nutshell, it’s a new way of correlating the mechanical properties of a porous high Tc super­
conducting material based on the porosity ratio that may be used in various industrial and technological
applications.

1. Introduction
Phononic crystals (PnCs) are artificial structures that can control the
flow of phonons. Phonons have been thought of as quanta of lattice vi­
brations that can be represented as wave phenomena in the form of
mechanical waves [1–3]. These mechanical waves could be confined
within the PnC structures. The whole spectrum of mechanical waves
(phonons) beginning with audible sound waves up to heat ranges (THz
frequencies), all of these ranges can readily be controlled using PnCs
[3–6]. Inside PnCs, phonons can be scattered and interfere with each
other like electrons in superconductors [7–10]. Also, PnCs are con­
structed periodically by adding successive layers of different elastic
properties as in the case of omnidirectional PnCs. The 2D and 3D peri­
odic PnC structures are a little bit different arrangements yet can be
understood well by studying the 1D case and its properties [1,3,7]. The
novel property that these special structures can exhibit is the so-called
phononic band gap (PBG) which is a distinct frequency range that
blocks any wave with this frequency to propagate [1,11]. In these gaps,
due to the variations or mismatches in mechanical properties of the
constituent layers like longitudinal, transverse speeds and the thickness
of the layers, a complete reflection of mechanical waves occurs causing a
suppression of the propagated wave through the crystal [1,11,12].
Macroscopically, we shall deal with and mathematical analysis of the
propagated wave by using the transfer matrix method (TMM) as it
provides accurate results and a descriptive view of the going on pro­
cesses inside the structure [13]. From a more practical view, the appli­
cations of 1D PnCs are quite explored lately in acoustic imaging, noise
isolation, acoustic lenses, acoustic wave guiding, communications,
acoustic filters, acoustic cloaking, development of acoustic Meta­
materials, and sensors [7,13–20].

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: zalrowaili@ju.edu.sa (Z.A. Alrowaili).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mssp.2022.107109
Received 11 April 2022; Received in revised form 23 August 2022; Accepted 11 September 2022
Available online 20 September 2022
1369-8001/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Z.A. Alrowaili et al.
Moreover, sensing applications are one of the most promising utili­
zation of PnCs. In particular, a defect layer, in the middle, breaks the
periodicity of the structure and manifests itself as a resonance mode
appearing in the band gap region [5,7,10,18,19,21,22]. Thus, defected
PnC structures grabbed much attention in sensing fields. In addition,
these structures could be easily fabricated and manipulated. However,
they can be very accurate devices. Therefore, many sensors with various
purposes were developed such as radioactivity sensing and nuclei
detection [19]. Liquid sensing also has been designed using PnCs to
determine its type, concentration, constituents, and other properties
[23–25]. For example, in 2009, a PnC with seven layers (three water
layers and four Al plates) was experimentally designed for liquid sensing
application by Ralf Lucklum et al., In 2016, he experimentally designed
a disposable PnC liquid sensor that can differentiate between two
alcohol-water mixtures with different acoustic properties [15]. In 2019,
Michael Vellekoop et al. designed a solid-air 3D PnC confining a fluidic
cavity resonator creating a 3D-printed phononic-fluidic cavity sensor
with an extraordinary linear sensitivity in a wide concentration range. In
this context, the detection of glucose and sodium chloride in aqueous
solutions received some attention [26]. Sodium chloride was detected
with a sensitivity of about 1.4 kHz [26]. In 2020, an acoustic biosensor
was introduced based on a 1D PnC sensor for protein contents such as
albumin, haemoglobin, or hemocyanin concentrations. Ultra-high
sensitivity for the three biomaterials of about 3.5 MHz over a concen­
tration range of 0–36% was obtained [27].
To the best of our knowledge, a porosity sensor is not widely
explored though. So, it has captivated our attention to investigate what a
1D PnC structure can offer us to pursue this area of study. The first
material ever discovered to become a superconductor above the boiling
point of liquid nitrogen(77K) at about 92K was found to be a member of
the family of the crystalline chemical compounds of Yttrium barium
copper oxide (YBa2Cu3O7-δ) [29]. Examining the crystal structure of
YBa2Cu3O7-δ reveals that superconductivity basically originates within
the copper-oxygen planes [30–35]. The critical temperature (Tc) is
directly proportional to the oxygen content of YBa2Cu3O7-δ, and below
6.3 oxygen content, the material superconductivity disappears due to
structural changes [30–35]. It can display high-temperature supercon­
ductivity and among all high Tc superconductors, it is the most used for
superconducting electronic devices like quantum interference devices,
single flux quantum circuits, Josephson junctions, bolometers, and THz
detectors, providing excellent superconducting properties [36]. The
porosity of the YBa2Cu3O7-δ plays a significant role in controlling the
magnitude of Young’s modulus and consequently, the mechanical
properties of this material [37]. In addition, in the porous system of
YBa2Cu3O7-δ, porosity has been found to be able to decrease resistivity
and increase the critical current density Jc compared to the non-porous
system [38].
With all the aforementioned information, it was found compelling to
further study the effects of porous YBa2Cu3O7-δ material as a defect layer
in a 1D PnC structure and what influence it can display in the
Fig. 1. A 3D representation of a 1D PnC structure composed of a periodic array of lead and epoxy with a defect layer of porous YBa2Cu3O7-δ.
2
Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing 152 (2022) 107109
propagation of the elastic waves through the crystal. The tuning of the
transmission spectrum of the 1D PnC is studied in this research with the
presence of the YBa2Cu3O7-δ layer in the middle of the periodic design,
having porosity variations from 26% to 40%. Besides, a porosity sensor
is examined carefully in order to supply a new way of determining the
elastic properties of porous high Tc superconducting materials which are
deeply attributed to the porosity ratio of the material in use [37,38].
2. Materials and theoretical model
2.1. Sensor design and materials
The proposed 1D PnC sensor structure is shown in Fig. 1. The
structure is designed from four unit cells intermediated with a defect
layer of porous YBa2Cu3O7-δ material. Each unit cell consists of two
different layers, lead, and epoxy, with thicknesses of d1 and d2,
respectively. Thus, the suggested sensing tool is arranged or configured
as ([lead/epoxy]2 YBa2Cu3O7-δ [lead/epoxy]2). The mechanical char­
acteristics of these materials are elucidated in Table 1 [4].
Then, the porosity of the YBa2Cu3O7-δ layer varies in a range of
26–40% causing the density and the transverse velocity to change
accordingly. These porosity variations can be easily controlled by pre­
paring the YBa2Cu3O7-δ layer to possess different porosities by both solid
state reaction and Sol-gel methods [37,39]. In Ref. [37], the double
transducer pulse transmission technique has been used to detect the
transverse velocities of various porosities, and the immersion technique
has been used to determine the bulk densities of all the YBa2Cu3O7-δ
samples. So, based on these experimental data, the relations between the
porosity and elastic properties (density and transverse speed) of
YBa2Cu3O7-δ were plotted in Fig. 2. Afterwards, these plotted data were
fitted as shown in Fig. 2 using the MATLAB program. The following
fitting equations (1) and (2) describing the density(kg/m3) and the
transverse velocity (m/s), respectively, were obtained, such that:
( / )
ρ kg m3 = 6.4 − 0.064P (1)
(m)
(2)
P P P
CT
sec
= AeB + BeC + CeD + D
where P is the porosity of the YBa2Cu3O7-δ layer, ρ defines the density of
this layer and CT is holding for the transverse speed with which the
elastic waves propagate. Then, A, B, C, and D describe the fitting pa­
rameters and their values are 32.55, − 3.27, − 3.63, − 3.99, and 1.63,
Table 1
Densities and speeds of elastic waves of the proposed materials.
Materials Mass density ρ (kg /m3 ) Transverse speed cT (m /s)
Lead 11.40 × 10 3 688
Epoxy 1.18 × 103 1160
Z.A. Alrowaili et al. Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing 152 (2022) 107109

Fig. 2. The changes in mechanical properties of YBa2Cu3O7-δ with the porosity ratio based on the experimental data, (a) Density, and (b) The transverse elastic
wave speed.

respectively. ( )
We can see from the linear fitting represented in equation (1) that ∂2 φ
σ x = 2μ . (6)
increasing the number of pores in the layer leads to a decrease in the ∂x2
bulk density. Also, from the exponential fitting in equation (2), as the Then, the two state vectors that represent the entire elastic wave
porosity increases, the transverse elastic wave velocity decreases. The propagation at the right and left sides of layer j in the kth unit cell are
rising porosity ratio causes Young’s modulus to drop as elaborated in the given as,
experimental data in Ref. [37] which, in turn, reduces the Lamé’s co­ { }
E
efficient (μ = 2(1+ ν)), where E is Young’s modulus and ν is the Poisson (7)
(k) (k) (k)
VjL = σ xjL , νxjL
ratio. As previously mentioned, the density falls with increasing
{ }
porosity. Also, Lamé’s coefficient is proportional to the transverse speed (k) (k) (k)
VjR = σ xjR , νxjR (8)
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
as in the relation, CT = μ/ρ, so, we conclude that the density and the
transverse speed of the YBa2Cu3O7-δ layer are both inversely propor­ where the subscripts L and R refer to the left and right sides of the layer j.
tional to the porosity ratio of the material [3,37]. The relation that ties the state vectors of the left and right sides of the
layer j in any kth unit cell can be written as,

2.2. Theoretical treatment VjR(k) = T ′j VjL(k) (9)

In this subsection, we introduce the theoretical formalism that gov­ where T′j is a 2 × 2 transfer matrix. Its entries are given as,
erns the interaction of the incident elastic waves and our designed 1D
iqTj xj
PnC. In this regard, the governing equation of the normal incident elastic e− + eiqTj xj
(10)
′ ′
Tj (1, 1) = Tj (2, 2) =
waves on the PnC structure is the wave equation for the transverse 2
waves and it’s expressed as follows,
iqTj μj .[eiqTj xj − e− iqTj xj
]
(11)
′
Tj (1, 2) =
∇ 2
φ = CT− 2 φ̈ (3) 2
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ i[e− iqTj xj
− eiqTj xj ]
where φ is the displacement potential and CT = μ/ρ is the transverse ′
Tj (2, 1) = (12)
wave speed in each layer of the structure, μ is the Lamé coefficient (it is 2qTj μj
equivalent to shear modulus), ρ is the mass density of the layer, and At the interfaces between the layers, the following condition is
∇2 = ∂2 /∂x2 . A normal incident transverse elastic wave propagates satisfied:
through the 1D PnC is represented with a wave vector K = kx ̂ x and it is
(13)
(k) (k)
given by the displacements φy and φz . Therefore, equation (3) indicates V1R = V2L
that these transverse waves are doubly degenerate. So, the propagations The full description of the TMM method is provided in references [4,
of these waves that share the same wave vector with the displacements 39]. This method requires continuity of the boundary conditions at the
φy and φz are equivalent. Then, the solution to equation (3) can be interfaces of the successive layers. Thus, the relationship between two
represented in the following form, consecutive state vectors in kth and (k − 1)th unit cells is given as,
φ = Xei(ωt− kx x)
+ Yei(ωt+kx x) . (4) (k)
V2R (k−
= Tk V2R 1)
(14)
√̅̅̅̅̅̅
j
where i2 = − 1, kx = ω and ω is the angular frequency, cxxx is the where Tk is the accumulative transfer matrix that relates two consecu­
ρ j
j
cxxx
tive unit cells and it is given in the form,
elastic stiffness constant of layer j, ρj is the mass density and X, Y are two
coefficients to be determined [4,5,19,40]. The displacement and stress Tk = T ′2 T ′1 (15)
components can be expressed as,
Eventually, the transmission coefficients for the displacement field
∂φ concerning the elastic plane wave propagating within the structure can
νx = (5)
∂x be expressed as [18,41]:

3
Z.A. Alrowaili et al. Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing 152 (2022) 107109

Ue 2E0 (T11 T22 − T12 T21 ) dispersed into several waves. At each interface between the layers, these
= (16)
U0 E0 (T11 − Ee T21 ) − (T12 − Ee T22 ) waves interfere with each other. For the case of constructive interfer­
ence, a stopped band gap is expected to appear [3,44].
where U0 and Ue are the incident and transmitted amplitudes of the To investigate the reaction of the transmission spectrum, a porous
elastic wave, respectively; and Tij = T(i, j) defines the elements of the YBa2Cu3O7-δ layer was inserted in the middle of the perfect 1D PnC as a
total transfer matrix T = Tn Tn− 1 …Tk …T1 . Also, a more detailed verifi­ defect layer. So, our design could be expressed as ([lead/epoxy]2
cation of the transfer matrix method in PnC structures is available in YBa2Cu3O7-δ [lead/epoxy]2), with the defect layer having a thickness of
Refs. [4,18,19,22,40,41]. d = 0.5 × 10− 3 m and a porosity of 26%. After inserting the defect layer,
a resonant mode starts to appear for each porosity ratio inside the PnBG
3. Results and discussion as shown in Fig. 2(b). So, the periodicity of the PnC is broken due to the
presence of the defect layer, forming a resonant peak with transmission
3.1. The transmission spectra of the 1DPnC structure intensity = 12.7%, at a normalized frequency ωa/2π c = 0.42553 which
is equivalent to a frequency value of 493.616 kHz. However, we intend
In this study, we present some numerical data, examples, and graphs to deduce the optimum values of the different parameters that could be
to show how the porosity of the YBa2Cu3O7-δ layer affects the trans­ utilized in our designed sensor to obtain the most suitable performance
mission spectrum and the sensitivity of a 1D PnC sensor. Notably, PnCs for this sensor. In this context, the optimization procedure is considered
have been investigated experimentally as sensors of many types and here in the vicinity of the changes in the position and intensity of the
purposes [15,19,23–25]. Therefore, we use a similar 1D PnC design to resonant peak.
the previous PnC sensors to demonstrate theoretically the idea of
monitoring the porosity ratio of superconducting material and deducing
3.2. Optimization of the used parameters
its mechanical properties depending on the resonance phenomenon.
Actually, the resonant mode appears due to the presence of the super­
3.2.1. Lead layer thickness optimization
conducting material as an effect layer inside the periodic alteration of
Fig. 4, which is obtained using equation (17), demonstrates that the
the PnC structure.
best thickness for the lead layer that can be used to obtain the best
Firstly in Fig. 3(a), we present the transmission spectrum of a perfect
sensitivity is equal to the value of 0.5 mm. With larger thicknesses, the
binary periodic PnC structure that contains four-unit cells, each with a
designed sensor sensitivity decreases to about 40 kHz. Here, lead is
lattice constant a = d1 + d2 . Each unit cell consists of lead and epoxy to
characterized by some hardness which, in turn, causes a much greater
form the configuration ([lead/epoxy]4. Meanwhile, both lead and epoxy
mismatch with the constituents of the structure at large values of its
has the same thickness such that; d1 = d2 = 0.5 × 10− 3 m. Also, the
thickness. This mismatch enhances the broadness of the PnBG which
mechanical properties of these materials were previously clarified in
leads to a reduction in the chances for resonant modes localizations [3,
section 3.1. The incidence and propagation of the mechanical wave are
41]. Rather than that, the resonant mode shifts due to changing porosity
implemented by using ultrasonic transducers which are in contact with
are more difficult to be sensed in a large PnBG [41,45]. So, it is
the PnC design and served as a transmitter and receiver for the propa­
reasonable to deduce that the used thickness of a lead layer is the best
gated wave as shown in Fig. 1. Actually, these transducers are imposed
choice to pursue.
as semi-infinite materials for numerical purposes. Moreover, the
considered size (mm scale) of lead and epoxy layers here is already
fabricated easily in previous 1D multilayer PnC designs for other ap­
plications [42,43]. Therefore, the idea of using a 1D PnC design for the
detection of the porosity of superconducting material and deducing its
mechanical properties can be applied experimentally easily based on
this vision. Fig. 3(a) shows a naturally generated band gap as a response
to the interaction between the structure and the incident elastic waves.
The PnBG is located in the range of 0.2–0.5 on the horizontal axis that
represents the normalized frequency (ωa /2πc), where c is the sound
speed, and it’s taken with the value 1160 m/s for numerical purposes.
Thus, the edges of the formed PnBG are corresponding to a frequency
range from 232 kHz to 580 kHz which lies in the range of ultrasonic
waves. The major mechanism of the PnBG formation is grounded upon
that, because of the mismatch in the mechanical properties of the layers’
materials, specifically, the transverse speed and density, the elastic Fig. 4. Sensitivity of the proposed porosity sensor as a function of the lead
waves face periodic changes. So, the normally incident elastic wave gets layer thickness.

Fig. 3. The transmission spectrum (a) of a 1D PnC structure [lead/epoxy]4 with a phononic band gap. (b) a resonant mode of the defect YBa2Cu3O7-δ layer of porosity
26% and thickness of 0.5 mm inside the PnC [lead/epoxy]4.

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 Z.A. Alrowaili et al. Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing 152 (2022) 107109

3.2.2. Epoxy layer thickness optimization

Based on equation (17), Fig. 5 shows the effect of epoxy as our second
material that has been exposed to effect on the sensitivity values as its
layer thickness increases from 0.5 mm to 3 mm. However, the maximum
achieved sensitivity was 71.084 kHz at a thickness of 0.5 mm as shown
in this figure. There was a huge fall at a thickness of 1 mm, but over the
plotted range the falling in the sensitivity value was observed to be
decreasing in magnitude. Also, at the thickness of 3 mm, the sensitivity
hits a value of 35.905 kHz. The reason for the decrement in the sensi­
tivity by increasing epoxy thickness is similar to that of lead. Increasing
the size of any used material directly enhances the band gap width,
however, this makes like a struggle for resonant peaks to shift easily.

3.2.3. YBa2Cu3O7-δ layer thickness optimization

Based on the obtained results in Figs. 4 and 5, any increase in the Fig. 6. Sensitivity of the proposed porosity sensor as a function of the YBa2
thickness of any layer will lead to some decrease in the sensitivity. As Cu3O7-δ layer thickness.
one can notice in Fig. 6, increasing the YBa2Cu3O7-δ layer thickness
greatly attenuates the sensor sensitivity. The highest sensitivity is
obviously provided at a thickness of 0.5 mm, so, it is the thickness that
we settled on for the defect layer. As the thickness increases with a
certain porosity ratio, the effect of the porosity of the material in
enhancing the sensitivity is constantly being compromised. Increasing
the thickness raises the density of the layer and then the elastic wave
speed [1,3]. These two contradicting parameters make it more difficult
for the localized resonant peak to be shifted. In addition, increasing the
thickness of the YBa2Cu3O7-δ layer can generate more resonant modes
inside the PnGB [21], however, it’s easier for the resonant modes to
move with a less thick defect material [18,21]. These results showed that
the used thicknesses are the most effective in order to preserve the
highest possible sensitivity for our PnC sensing tool.

3.3. Porosity detection by the 1D PnC sensor

In Fig. 7, different porosities of the YBa2Cu3O7-δ layer with ratios

(26–40%) were proposed in the structure ([lead/epoxy]2 Yba2Cu3O7-δ
[lead/epoxy]2). As seen in this figure, the porosity of the defect layer has
a reasonable effect on the resonant mode of the defective PnC structure.
The figure shows that the resonant mode can appear at different values
of the normalized frequency depending on the porosity ratio of the
inserted YBa2Cu3O7-δ layer. As the porosity ratio increases, there is a
noticeable shift in the peak position towards higher frequencies. When
the porosity ratio of the Yba2Cu3O7-δ layer increases, the material gets
lighter, the density decreases and the elastic wave speed in turn de­
creases [3]. So, the mechanical properties of the porous Yba2Cu3O7-δ get
closer to those of epoxy [3]. Then, the interference that takes place at the
interfaces between layers causes the peak to shift from its original
position.
Furthermore, the transmission intensity related to each porosity ratio
grows with higher porosities. In the case of 32% porosity, the resonant
Fig. 7. The effect of porosity of the YBa2Cu3O7-δ on the position of the reso­
nant peak.
mode is observed at a normalized frequency = 0.4 is equivalent to the
absolute frequency of 496.87 kHz and has an intensity of 15%. For
further increase in the porosity values, the resonant peak is still shifting
towards higher frequencies and the transmission intensity of these peaks
is increasing as well. Meanwhile, higher porosity ratios mean more
physical gaps for the incident wave to pass as well as the reflected waves
within the structure. As for the highest one in our range, 40% porosity,
the observed peak is obtained at a normalized frequency = 0.4346
which corresponds to 504.12 kHz, and with an intensity of 18.4%. To
sum up, the transmission distribution of the elastic waves in the defected
PnC versus the normalized frequency for a porosity range of 26–40% is
shown in Fig. 8. Here, the illuminated spots (Highest transmission
values; resonant modes) in the normalized frequency range (0.41–0.45)
shifted with increasing the porosity values.

3.4. Sensor performance and analysis

In this subsection, we discuss the performance of our sensing tool

Fig. 5. Sensitivity of the proposed porosity sensor as a function of the Epoxy
layer thickness.
based on some parameters such as sensitivity (S), quality factor (Q), and
figure of merit (FOM). These parameters are considered potential in­
dicators for performance in the sensing field. Basically, their values are
determined based on the defect mode characteristics relative to the
changes in the values of the detected parameter. Here, the sensitivity of
the sensor is defined as the change in the defect mode position due to the

5
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Z.A. Alrowaili et al.
Fig. 8. A Colour map of the elastic field distribution through the PnC ([lead/epoxy]2 Yba2Cu3O7-δ [lead/epoxy]2) versus the normalized frequency.
changes in the porosity, and could be calculated using the following
relation [4,46,47],
Δf
S=
ΔP
where Δf = fr − f0 represents the shift in the frequency of the resonant
mode, fr and f0 are the resonant mode frequencies at any given porosity
ratio and 26% porosity ratio, respectively. ΔP describes the change in
porosity ratio of Yba2Cu3O7-δ. Another performance parameter is the
quality factor (Q), which is affected considerably by the position of the
resonant peak and the full width at half maximum (FWHM), and it can
be calculated as follows [4,46,47],
fr
Q=
FWHM
with fr representing the resonant mode frequency of each porosity ratio.
Herein, small values of FWHM indicate sharp resonant peaks and could
lead to high values of Q[48]. Moreover, the figure of merit is a function
of the sensor sensitivity as;
S
FOM =
FWHM
Fig. 9 summarizes the sensitivity values for the defective PnC
structure ([lead/epoxy]2YBa2Cu3O7-δ[lead/epoxy]2) versus different
porosity values. As seen in the figure, we obtained continuously raising
sensitivity values with increasing porosity ratios of the defect layer.
Fig. 9. The behaviour of the resonant peak and sensitivity throughout the changes in the YBa2Cu3O7-δ porosity from 26 to 40%.
Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing 152 (2022) 107109
Sensitivity reached its highest value of 75.04 kHz/% with increasing the
porosity up to the value of 40%. That furnishes a porosity sensor device
that can offer a sensitivity to predict a 75.04 kHz shift in a resonant
(17) mode frequency with just a 1% change in the porosity of the defect layer.
Consequently, we now can achieve a highly sensitive porosity sensor
based on the 1D defective PnC structure proposed.
The damping is such a characteristic that describes how elastic waves
decay inside the 1D PnC after some time due to the disturbance they face
within the structure. The sharpness of the resonant peaks is determined
depending on the amount of damping. The sharpness of the resonance
occurring in the crystal increases when the damping decreases [49–51].
Moreover, the quality factor (Q) is the parameter that describes the
sharpness of the resonance transmitted peaks of the defective 1D PnC
porosity sensor. The higher Q indicates a lower ratio of elastic energy
(18)
loss relative to the stored energy of the PnC. The quality factor and the
damping rate are both related to each other by the following relation
[51],
1
ξ= (20)
2Q
(19) where ξ is the damping rate and Q is the quality factor. Then, Fig. 10
shows the effect of the damping rate on the sharpness of resonance peaks
with different porosities ranging from 26 to 40%. As observed in the
figure, the YBa2Cu3O7-δ layer with a porosity ratio of 29% has the
highest sharpness of the resonant peak, the highest Q factor of 186.474
and the lowest damping rate of 2.68 × 10− 3 compared to other porosity
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 Z.A. Alrowaili et al.
Fig. 10. The effect of the damping rate of the elastic wave inside the 1D porosity sensor of the structure ([lead/epoxy]2 YBa2Cu3O7-δ [lead/epoxy]2) on the sharpness
of resonance peaks of different YBa2Cu3O7-δ layer porosities.
ratios. On the other hand, the YBa2Cu3O7-δ layer with the porosity ratio
of 40% has the lowest sharpness of the resonant peak (Q factor) of
183.23 as it has the highest damping rate of 2.729 × 10− 3 .
The figure of merit is considered a comprehensive parameter to
evaluate the performance of a sensor. As previously mentioned in
equation (19), it’s the ratio between the sensitivity (S) and the full width
at half maximum (FWHM) of the resonant peak. We can see from Fig. 11
that FOM is increasing with porosity, which is convenient for any sensor
performance. Regarding the increase in the sensitivity of the device, it’s
expected for the FOM which is a function of the sensitivity to increase as
well. We can see that by increasing the porosity ratio from 26% to 40%,
the figure of merit increases to reach the value of 27.2735.
Finally, based on these results, we think the proposed porosity sensor
of the porous high Tc superconducting material is another success of the
growing uses of PnCs-based sensors. Since, PnCs-based sensors were
used before in various sensing contributions such as biodiesel sensors
[21], liquid sensors [15,21,24,52,53], biomedical sensors [46], me­
chanical sensors [54], neutron detection [19], and gasoline components
determination sensor [22]. As for our sensor, it can be regarded as a
further step or an extension of the previous work on PnCs sensors after it
has reached a high sensitivity of 75.04 kHz and a Q value of 186.474 for
new utilization of the 1D PnC sensors in the field of porous materials and
superconductors as well. As its well known, superconductors are
Fig. 11. Figure of merit (FoM) of the porosity sensor versus porosity.
7
­
Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing 152 (2022) 107109
promising materials for many applications but at the same time, they
have some drawbacks like being expensive and hard to fabricate.
Therefore, we think introducing a sensor for controlling the porosity
ratio of a superconductor material and detecting their mechanical,
electrical, or thermal properties based on that ratio is a novel idea that
deserves to be introduced and studied.
4. Conclusion
In this paper, we introduced a novel kind of sensor based on a PnC
structure. The sensor focused on the detection of the porosity ratio of a
high Tc porous superconductor (YBa2Cu3O7-δ). The sensor is capable of
detecting the porosity ratio and the mechanical properties of the YBa2
Cu3O7-δ material, which is inserted as a defect layer inside a periodic
array of lead/epoxy PnC structures. High sensitivity of 75.04 × 103 Hz/
% and a Q value of 186.474 were achieved using this porosity sensor.
The insertion of a number of YBa2Cu3O7-δ layers with different porosities
ranging from 26% to 40% brought out some resonant peaks inside the
phononic band gap that are considered indicators for the mechanical
properties of each porous layer. Further, we examined our sensor ability
to differentiate between different porous ratios and calculated many
performance parameters. That shall pave the way towards a completely
new type of sensor modality based on simple 1D PnCs that can offer
great help in nowadays sensing measurements and studies concerning
Z.A. Alrowaili et al.
porous superconducting materials. To our best knowledge, no complete
study has investigated a porosity sensor with sensitivity, quality factor,
and figure of merit treatments all based on a 1D PnC design. In addition,
we have studied the damping rate of the incident elastic waves inside
our PnC structure. Finally, our findings can be summarized as follows.
(1) Due to the elastic energy loss within the layers, sharp resonant
peaks are localized inside the PnBG which are related to each
porosity ratio of the YBa2Cu3O7-δ layer and its physical
properties.
(2) The increase in the porosity ratio of the defect layer results in a
shift of the transmission resonant peaks towards higher
frequencies.
(3) The intensity of the transmitted peaks gets higher and higher with
the increments of the porosity of the defect layer.
(4) The sensor has provided a high performance represented by the
high sensitivity with the value of 75.04 × 103 Hz/%, the quality
factor of 186.474, and the FOM of 27.2735.
Based on these findings, this defective PnC sensor design can be
considered an effective tool for measuring, sensing, and detecting the
porosity ratios of many materials including high Tc superconducting
materials.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Z.A. Alrowaili: Writing – review & editing. Hisham Mohamed
Gaber: Conceptualization. Lama Sh Aljoufi: Writing – review & editing.
Hussein A. Elsayed: Conceptualization. T.A. Taha: Writing – review &
editing. Ahmed Mehaney: Conceptualization.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Data availability
The authors do not have permission to share data.
Acknowledgment
This work was funded by the Deanship of Scientific Research at Jouf
University under grant No (DSR-2021-03-0399).
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Further reading
[28] B.A. Howe, Cornerstone : A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for
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