Optik - International Journal for Light and Electron Optics 226 (2021) 165994

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Optik
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijleo

Original research article

Analysis of one-dimensional photonic crystal based sensor for

detection of blood plasma and cancer cells
Ashish Bijalwan a, Bipin K. Singh b, *, Vipul Rastogi a
a
Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, 247667, India
b
Department of Physics, University of Mumbai, Mumbai, 400 032, India

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

Keywords: We theoretically investigate the sensing performance of one-dimensional photonic crystal (PC)
Photonic crystal based sensor for the detection of blood plasma and cancer cells. The sensor consists of a sample
Reflectance layer sandwiched between two identical PCs of silica (SiO2) and titania (TiO2). The performance
Defect modes
of the sensor is evaluated by using the transfer matrix method. We show a sensitivity of 71.25
Biosensors
nm/RIU while using the sample thickness of 100 nm, which can be increased to 161 nm/RIU by
increasing the sample thickness to 300 nm. This however, requires a substantial quantity of the
sample. We show that by using the additional layers of SiO2 on both the PC stacks the requirement
of sample quantity can be reduced significantly while maintaining the same value of sensitivity.
We show that using an additional layer of SiO2 can reduce the sample thickness by 14% while
maintaining the value of sensitivity at 71.25 nm/RIU. The sensitivities of the proposed sensor for
cancer cells and hemoglobin in blood plasma are more than 73 nm/RIU and 72 nm/RIU,
respectively. The proposed structure is compact in size, easy to fabricate and cost effective.

1. Introduction

Photonic crystals (PCs) are attractive in both science and technology due to their wide-ranging applications in optics, optoelec­
tronics devices, chemical and biomedical sensing [1–6]. PCs are composite materials formed by a periodic arrangement of two or more
materials of different refractive indices. The periodic variation of the refractive index significantly changes the spectral properties such
as reflectance, transmittance, band structure, group velocity and the rate of spontaneous emission. The PC structures are characterized
by the allowed and forbidden band gaps. The forbidden band gaps are known as photonic band gaps (PBGs) that prohibit light
propagation over a range of frequencies [7–9]. PCs have been utilized as optical sensors in diff ;erent areas such as chemical, biological,
gas and temperature detections [10–14]. PC-based sensors are compact and have the ability for real-time monitoring and wide dy­
namic range.
Various configurations based PC structures have shown advantages in drug delivery, bio-molecular detection, cancer diagnostics,
and temperature, pressure and chemical sensing. The incorporation of various analytes in the PC structures exhibits the unique
detection modes and tunable photonic properties that are utilized to detect various diseases [15–22]. 1-D PC structures are more
attractive than 2-D and 3-D PC structures because of their simple fabrication, low cost, and less number of parameters for optimization
[4,5,23,24]. 1-D PCs composed of the graded index, dielectric, negative, and plasma materials have been reported with their tunable
PBGs and exotic optical properties for omnidirectional reflectors, multi-channel optical sensors/filters, optical sensors and

* Corresponding author at: Department of Physics, University of Mumbai, Mumbai, 400032, India.
E-mail address: b_singh@ph.iitr.ac.in (B.K. Singh).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijleo.2020.165994
Received 2 January 2020; Received in revised form 2 July 2020; Accepted 7 November 2020
Available online 10 November 2020
0030-4026/© 2020 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
A. Bijalwan et al. Optik 226 (2021) 165994

refractometric applications [25–30]. Also, they are practical for on-chip integration with the incorporation of light sources and de­
tectors [31]. Nowadays, the detection of the presence of a particular disease such as cancer, HIV, hepatitis, and biochemical to the
upkeep of patients is the challenging task in the medical field. Notably, the term cancer is like a rare and hidden factor for human
beings. In most of the cases, blood analysis plays a vital role in the detection of these diseases. The dielectric values of different blood
constituents are unique which are very useful for the detection of diseases, clinical diagnoses, regulation of metabolism, and
biochemical analysis for various medical applications [4–6]. Various kinds of PC sensors with good optical performances and
multi-functionality have been theoretically and experimentally presented. Recently, highly ordered 1-D PC sensors according to
application demands have been developed in micro-/nano-structures based on top-down as well as bottom-up construction routes
using spin coating forming multilayers, dip-coating & templating approach by employing harder and soft materials [32,33]. The PBGs
and optical properties of the PC sensors in different periodic and aperiodic multilayer structures have been studied using well known
computational techniques such as finite difference time domain (FDTD), Plane-wave expansion (PWE), Finite element method, and
Transfer matrix method [34–37]. The objective of this work is to design a sensor based on a 1-D PC structure for monitoring the blood
plasma and various cancer cells. In this study, the defect mode analysis is used for refractive index monitoring. Different blood plasmas
or cancer cells placed in between two identical PCs act as a defect and result in a dip in the reflection spectra of the structures. A change
in the concentration of blood plasma or a change in the cancer cells causes a substantial shift to the position of the dip. Thus by
observing the reflection spectra of the proposed biosensor structures, it is possible to measure the different concentrations of blood
plasma and to identify different cancer cells.

2. Theoretical description

The schematic diagrams of the biosensors based on 1-D PC structures; (a) sensor-I and (b) sensor-II, with defect layer of blood
plasma or cancer cell are shown in Fig. 1. Sensor-I consists of a multilayers structure air/(AB)n S(AB)n /air as shown in Fig. 1 (a). Sensor-
I design is like a conventional PC based sensor structure. Sensor-II is shown in Fig. 1(b) and is a multi-layered structure consisting
of air/(AB)n CSC(AB)n /air. Here, n represents the number of periods. The media A and B are the layer SiO2 of width d1 , refractive index
n1 , and the layer TiO2 of width d2 , refractive index n2 , respectively. The defect medium S is the sample layer of width ds , and
refractive index ns , and layer C is the additional SiO2 layer of thickness d3 , and refractive index n1 . The optical properties of the blood
plasma and cancer cell samples have been obtained from previously reported papers [15–17,38,39]. The proposed Sensor-I and
Sensor-II can be easily developed to fabricate multilayer structures based on top-down and bottom-up construction routes using
spin-coating, doctor-blade, and dip coating approach [32,33].
The field distribution for light wave propagation in the dielectric media along the plane perpendicular to the surface of layer is
given by:
( ) ( )
Ej (x) = Aj .exp − ikj x + Bj .exp ikj x (1)

where Aj and Bj represent the transmitting and reflecting amplitudes for the jth medium, respectively. kj is the wave vector of the jth
medium.
To calculate the reflectance, transmittance, and PBG spectra of the above proposed sensors, the transfer matrix method (TMM) has
been used. In the multi-layered systems, the amplitudes of electric and magnetic fields at input and output end can be co- related with
matrix expressions by using transfer matrix approach. For multi-layered structures, the amplitudes of input and output media can be
expressed by multiplying the characteristic matrices of the constituent layers as; [40,41]

Fig. 1. Schematic diagrams of the proposed 1-D photonic crystal based biosensor structures (a) conversional PC sensor-I; air/(AB)n S(AB)n /air and
(b) sensor-II; air/(AB)n CSC(AB)n /air.

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A. Bijalwan et al. Optik 226 (2021) 165994

( ) ( )
A0 ( ) Aj+1
= M0− 1 M1 .M2 …Mj M0 (2)
B0 Bj+1

where j represents the number of media, A0 , B0 and Aj+1 , Bj+1 are the field components for incident (0th) medium and outgoing (j+1)th
medium, respectively. Matrix Mj (j = 1, 2, 3…) is the 2 × 2 characteristics matrix of jth medium. Matrix M0 is the 2 × 2 charac­
teristics matrix of air medium. The characteristic matrices Mj of jth layer and M0 of the air for normal incident angle are respectively
specified by;
[ ( ) ( / ) ( )] ⎫
cos kzj dj − i nj sin kzj dj ⎪
⎪
Mj = ( ) ( ) ⎪
⎬
− inj .sin kzj d[j cos
] k zj d j (3)
1 1 ⎪
⎪
M0 = ⎪
⎭
n0 − n0

where kzj = (2π/λ)nj , where λ is the wavelength of the incident radiation in air, nj is the layer refractive index and dj is the layer
thickness of jth media. n0 is the refractive index of air. Here, the wavelength λ is considered in range between 400 nm–1000 nm.
Finally, the reflectance (R) and transmittance (T) of the multilayer biosensor structure can be calculated by the expressions; [40,41]
⃒ ⃒2 ⃒ ⃒ ⃒ ⃒2 ⃒ ⃒2
⃒B0 ⃒ ⃒M21 ⃒2 ⃒ ⃒ ⃒ ⃒
R = ⃒⃒ ⃒⃒ = ⃒⃒ ⃒ and T = ⃒Aj+1 ⃒ = ⃒ 1 ⃒ (4)
A0 M11 ⃒ ⃒A ⃒
0
⃒M ⃒
11

where the equation components M11 and M21 represent the matrix elements of 2ⅹ2 the optical transfer matrix Mij (i, j = 1, 2), which
is the resultant matrix of the proposed structures.

3. Results and discussion

In order to study the sensing performance of PC based biosensor, we first numerically analyze the reflection properties of sensor-I.
The thickness of SiO2 and TiO2 layers are d1 = 120 nm, d2 = 90 nm respectively, and the wavelength dependent refractive indices of
SiO2 (n1 ), and TiO2 (n2 ) have been obtained from literatures [42,43]. The values of refractive indices n1 and n2 are 1.475 and 2.365 at
the wavelength 700 nm. The reflection spectra of the perfect PC structure (sensor-I with dS = 0 nm) and a bio-sample filled sensor-I
with different values of nS are shown in Fig. 2.
One can observe the perfect reflection band in Fig. 2 (a) which corresponds to a perfect PC. The band region and band width of the
reflection band can be tuned by lattice parameters. The perfect PC structure with a sample layer (Fig. 1 (a)) leads to localization of
defect modes and gives rise to a reflection dip at wavelength λd . The position of reflection dip depends on thickness and refractive index
of the sample. To show the origin of defect mode and the effect of sample parameters, we have shown the reflection spectra of the
sensor-I for different values of nS in the Fig. 2 (b). In the figure, we observe the reflection dips at λd = 707.8 nm and λd = 711.7 nm
within the reflection band in presence of the sample of thickness 80 nm and sample refractive index 1.33 and 1.41, respectively. As the
thickness of the sample layer is increased, λd shifts to longer wavelength within the reflection band. For better look of the sensing dip
shifting, we have shown the reflection spectra in the inset of Fig. 2(b) for a narrower region from 690 nm to 730 nm. We obtain the
sensing dip shifting 3.9 nm for sample refractive index 1.33–1.41 and the sample of thickness 80 nm.
For better demonstration of the variation of λd under the influence of sample layer thickness and refractive indices, we have plotted

Fig. 2. (a) Reflectance spectra of the perfect photonic crystal structure air/(AB)2n /air, and (b) reflectance spectra of the bio-sample filled structure
air/(AB)n S(AB)n /air for nS = 1.33 and nS = 1.41 with dS = 80 nm.

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A. Bijalwan et al. Optik 226 (2021) 165994

a graph between λd and dS for different value of nS ranging from 1.33–1.41 in Fig. 3. From this figure, it is clearly seen that the λd
increases with dS for all the values of nS . It should be noted that the separation between the reflections dips (λd ) for different values of
nS increases with layer thickness dS . The demonstrations of the variation of λd under the influence of sample layer thickness show that
the highest deviation of sensitivity can be achieved for a higher sample size.
To obtain the sensitivity of sensor-I, we have shown the variation of λd as a function of refractive index ns ranging from 1.33–1.41
for different values of ds in Fig. 4. It is observed that the variation of λd with ns is almost linear for any given value of ds . Sensitivity of a
sensor is defined as the slope of the sensor response (λd vs ns ) and expressed as;
Δλd
S= (5)
Δns
We observed that the slope of the sensor response increases with increase in thickness of the sample layer. Sensitivity of the sensor is
48.75 nm/RIU for the value of ds = 80 nm. As the value of ds is increased to 100 nm, sensitivity increases to the value of 71.25 nm/RIU.
It is found that the sensitivity can reach a value 161.25 nm/RIU for ds value of 300 nm. One can see that the sensitivity of PC based
sensor depends on the thickness of sample layer and for obtaining significant sensitivity substantial quantity of the sample is required,
which is not desirable in the case of bio-fluids.
To address this issue with improvement in sensing performance of the sensor-I, we present another PC based sensor (sensor-II),
schematic diagram of which is shown in Fig. 1(b). Sensor-II consists of additional defect layer C (SiO2) of layer thickness d3 on both
sides of the sample. These additional SiO2 layers act as defect and will increase the influence of sample as defect layer, this increases the
sensitivity of the sensor and also reduces the quantity of sample required for sensing. The structural arrangement of sensor-II is
air/(AB)n CSC(AB)n /air. Here, the structural parameters are d1 = 120 nm, d2 = 90 nm, d3 = 50 nm and period n = 5. To analyze the
impact of additional defect layer, we have shown the reflection spectra of the sensor-II at different dS values in the Fig. 5. Fig. 5 (a)
shows the reflectance spectra of the structure without sample (ds = 0). Reflection dip at 733.8 nm corresponds to the presence of
additional SiO2 layer ‘C’. The reflection spectra of the sensor-II for different values of dS are shown in the Figs. 5 (b) and 5 (c) for ns =
1.33 and 1.41, respectively. As in the previous case, here also λd moves toward longer wavelength side with increasing the value of dS .
The value of λd shifts from 752.9 nm to 810.6 nm with increasing the value of dS from 20 nm to 80 nm for ns = 1.33. As expected, a
slight change in the position of λd is also observed with changing ns from 1.33–1.41. By changing ns from 1.33–1.41, the reflection dip
which is observed at 810.6 nm for dS = 80 nm, is now obtained at 815.8 nm.
For better understanding of the tuning of λd by refractive index and layer thickness of the sample, we have shown the variation of λd
as a function of dS in Fig. 6. The shift of λd towards longer wavelength side as the thickness of the sample increases. Similar to sensor-I,
the separation between the reflection dips increases with increasing value of dS . The variation of λd under the influence of sample layer
thickness exhibits that the more significant deviation of sensitivity can be achieved for the higher amount of sample.
To analyze the sensitivity of the sensor II, we have shown the variation of λd as a function of sample refractive index (ns ) ranging
from 1.33–1.41 for different values of ds in Fig. 7. The figure shows the shifting of λd with ns for the values of ds varying from 80 nm to
100 nm, and the increase in the slope of sensor response curve with increase in the sample layer thickness. The slope of the graph
gradually increases with increase in the value of ds ; hence the sensitivity of the sensor increases with ds . Sensitivity for 80 nm sample
thickness is 65 nm/RIU and increases to 80 nm /RIU for 100 nm.
In addition, to express the performance of the proposed sensor, another important characteristic of the senor is the quality factor
‘Q’. For designing a suitable sensor, we need high sensitivity and quality factors to sense the small change in the refractive index and
amount of the sample accurately. The quality factor (Q) depends on the sensitivity and full width half maximum (FWHM) as follows
[44]
S
Q= (6)
FWHM
In comparison to sensor-I, one can easily notice that for any given value of ds , (or for any given quantity of the sample) the
calculated sensitivity and quality factor of sensor-II using Eqs. (5) and (6) is always better than that of sensor-I with respect to the
amount of the sample. The quantitative comparison of the performance of both the sensors studied is given in Table 1. We observe that

Fig. 3. The variation of reflection dip wavelength λd with sample layer thickness ds .

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A. Bijalwan et al. Optik 226 (2021) 165994

Fig. 4. The variation of sensing dip wavelength λd with sample refractive index ns .

Fig. 5. Panel (a) reflectance spectra of the structureair/(AB)n CC(AB)n /air. Panels (b) and (c) reflectance spectra of the bio-sample filled defect
structure air/(AB)n CSC(AB)n /air for nS = 1.33 and nS = 1.41, respectively.

the sensitivity and quality factor increase with increasing the sample layer thickness. Sensor-II has more significant sensitivity as
compare to the senor-I for the higher amount of sample.
One can easily observe from the table that the sensitivity of sensor-I increases with sample layer thicknesses. Sensitivity of sensor-I
is obtained to be 48.75 nm/RIU for sample thickness ds = 80 nm and it increases to 71.25 nm/RIU for ds = 100 nm. By using sensor-II,
we can reduce the sample layer thickness. Sensitivity of the sensor-II is obtained to be 48.75 nm/RIU for sample thickness ds = 59 nm.
Thus, the sample layer thickness is reduced by about 26 % in comparison to that required in sensor-I. Similarly, sensor-II offers the
sensitivity of 71.25 nm/RIU for ds = 86 nm. Here, we can reduce the sample layer thickness by 14 %. Therefore, at least 14 % less
quantity of the sample is required in sensor II, than that of used in sensor-I, whereas the sensitivity is almost equal for both the sensor.
In the above study, numerical simulation have been carried out for the values of ns ranging from 1.33–1.41 because refractive
indices of some bio-fluids such as haemoglobin, glucose in blood, cancer cells lies in this range [15–17,44]. Therefore, the proposed
sensor can be used for bio-sensing. To show the capability of the proposed sensor as a bio-sensor, we have analysed the performance of
the sensor for blood plasma and cancers cell sensing application.

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A. Bijalwan et al. Optik 226 (2021) 165994

Fig. 6. The variation of sensing dip wavelength λd with sample layer thickness ds .

Fig. 7. The variation of sensing dip wavelength λd with sample refractive index ns .

Table 1
Comparison of the Sensor-I And Sensor-II.
Case 1 Case 2 Case 3
Sensor Sensitivity ds Quality factor, Q Sensitivity ds Quality factor, Q Sensitivity ds Quality factor, Q
(nm/RIU) (nm) (RIU− 1) (nm/RIU) (nm) (RIU− 1) (nm/RIU) (nm) (RIU− 1)

Sensor- 71.25 100 21.59 60.00 90 17.14 48.75 80 12.5

I
Sensor- 71.25 86 20.96 60.00 74 18.18 48.75 59 16.25
II

The refractive indices of the different blood plasma cells have been obtained from Ref. [15]. For comparison of the sensitivity with
recently published report on PC based sensor, the thickness of the sample layer is considered to be 90 nm. Fig. 8 shows the reflection
spectra of the sensor-II for different plasma concentration in blood. λd shifts toward longer wavelength as the concentration of plasma
increases since refractive index of blood changes with the concentration of plasma. Sensitivity is calculated by taking 10 g/L as a
reference. The measured sensitivity of the sensor is about 72 nm/RIU which is much higher than that of the previously reported PC
based sensors. The step by step sensing performances of the sensor for different concentrations of the blood plasma and their com­
parisons with Ref. [15] are shown in Table 2. The comparison exhibits that the higher sensitivity is achieved for the corresponding
variations of the blood plasma concentrations. The calculated sensitivity describes the potential of the proposed sensor for different
concentrations of the blood plasma cell.
In the Fig. 9, we have shown the variation of the values of λd and ns for different blood plasma concentration. With increasing the
concentration of the blood plasma, λd shifts toward longer wavelength due to change the refractive index of the sample. The slop of λd
variation represents the sensitivity of the sensor for different concentrations of the blood plasma.
We have also worked on the detection of cancer cells. The refractive indices of various cancer cells have been adopted from [16,17].
Fig. 10 shows the reflection spectrum of the sensor-II with different cancer cells in as a sample layer. Thickness of the sample layer is 90
nm. λd is 821.3 nm if normal cell (zero cancer) are considered as a sample. If cancer cells are present, λd start to shift from normal cell
and which can be seen in the Fig. 10. We observe that λd changes as the different cells are present. The measured sensitivity is better
than that the sensitivity reported in reference [17], and is about 73 nm/RIU. The step by step sensing performances of the sensor for
different cancer cells and their comparisons with Ref [17]. are shown in Table 3. The comparison reveals that the higher sensitivity is
obtained for the corresponding cancer cells. The measured sensitivity describes the potential of the proposed sensor for different cancer
cells.
The variation of the values of λd corresponds to the various cancer cells is shown in Fig. 11. We also observe here that the position

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A. Bijalwan et al. Optik 226 (2021) 165994

Fig. 8. Reflection spectra of the sensor for different concentration of blood plasma.

Table 2
The sensitivity and quality factor of the sensor for different concentration of blood plasma and keeping ds = 90 nm.
Blood Plasma Refractive Index, ns Sensitivity (nm/RIU) Quality Factor (RIU¡1)

10 g/L 1.339692811 This Work Ref. [15] This Work Ref. [15]
20 g/L 1.359112811 72.0906 51.49 18.971 –
(from 10 to 20)
30 g/L 1.378532811 72.0906 38.62 18.971 –
(from 10 to 30)
40 g/L 1.397952811 72.0906 34.33 18.971 –
(from 10 to 40)
50 g/L 1.417372811 73.378 32.18 19.31 –
(from 10 to 50)

Fig. 9. The variation of refractive index (ns ) and reflection dip (λd ) for different concentration of blood plasma.

Fig. 10. Reflection spectrum of the sensor for different cancer cells.

reflection dip shifts toward longer wavelength side with increasing the refractive index of the different cell samples. Sensitivity of the
sensor is measured as ratio of change in the position of reflection dip (Δλd ) to change in the refractive index of the cancer cell (Δns =
ncancer cell − nnormal cell ). Sensitivity is obtained to be 72.5 nm/RIU, 73.8 nm/RIU, 73.3 nm/RIU, 73.5 nm/RIU, and 74.5 nm/RIU for
Jurkat, HeLa, PC12, MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7, respectively.

4. Conclusion

In this paper, we have demonstrated the PC based sensor and analysed the effect of the layer thickness of sample on the sensitivity

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A. Bijalwan et al. Optik 226 (2021) 165994

Table 3
The sensitivity and quality factor of the sensor for different cancer cells and keeping ds = 90 nm.
Cells ns Sensitivity (nm/RIU) Quality Factor (RIU¡1)

Normal cell 1.35 This Work Ref. [17] This Work Ref. [17]
Jurkat 1.39 72.5 42.5 19.079 –
(Normal-Jurkat)
HeLa 1.392 73.80952 42.95 19.424 –
(Normal-HeLa)
PC12 1.395 73.33333 42.22 19.82 –
(Normal-PC12)
MDA-MB-231 1.399 73.46939 42.85 19.334 –
(Normal-MDAMB-231)
MCF-7 1.401 74.5098 43.13 19.608 –
(Normal-MCF-7)

Fig. 11. The variation of reflection dips (λd ) for different sample refractive indices.

of the senor. To reduce the quantity of the sample required for sensing and simultaneous improvement in sensitivity, we have proposed
the sensor with additional defect layer on both sides of the sample layer. This proposed sensor requires 14 % lesser amount of sample
thickness than that is used in conventional PC based sensor. The variation of sensing wavelength under the influence of sample layer
thickness exhibits that the sensitivity increases with increasing the layer thickness of the sample and a more significant deviation of
sensitivity can be achieved for a higher amount and refractive index of the sample. Thus, it may be possible to further tune the
sensitivity and quality factor with scaling the amount and refractive index of sample and coating layers. Further we showed the
application of such sensor as blood plasma and cancer cells sensing. Sensitivity has been obtained to be more than 72 nm/RIU and 73
nm/RIU for blood plasma and cancer cells, respectively. The demonstrated sensitivity describes the potential of the proposed PC sensor
for sensing the different blood plasma concentrations and different cancer cells. The sensing efficiency and simple structure of the
presented 1D PC sensor inscribe the interest of fabrication.

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.

Acknowledgement

One of the authors (Bipin K. Singh) is thankful to The University Grants Commission (UGC), India, for providing financial support in
the form of Dr. D. S. Kothari Postdoctoral Fellowship.

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