Measurement 192 (2022) 110738

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Measurement
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/measurement

Detection of amino acid with metamaterial perfect absorbers in the

terahertz band
Jun Zhu *, Changsong Wu
College of Electronic Engineering, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, China

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

Keywords: At present, most amino acid detection techniques have the shortcomings of laborious equipment operation
Amino acid procedures, long detection periods, and low accuracy, which cannot meet the requirements of high-standard
Metamaterial absorber amino acid identification in the food industry. Based on the related literature, some amino acids are readily
Terahertz band
soluble in water. Therefore, a novel detection and identification method can be designed based on the different
refractive indices of aqueous amino acid solutions. We introduce a terahertz metamaterial perfect absorber which
component successively are a Si buffer layer, a solid metallic Au reflecting layer, a SiO2 depletion layer, a main
structure array layer, and a cover layer from bottom to top. The main structure array layer composed of graphene
four-opening square ring structure and a golden hemisphere. The absorber achieves perfect absorption based on
the principle of impedance matching. It is innovatively applied for the detection of aqueous amino acid additives
solution. The absorber has two modes with absorptivity of 99.86% and 99.99% at 5.9 THz and 8.1 THz,
respectively. The sensing sensitivity of both modes can reaches 1.1 THz/RIU and 1.5 THz/RIU, respectively,
which has obvious advantages in other reported sensors. Experimental results show that the proposed sensor can
accurately identify the four amino acids selected by 100% in this study. The research presented this paper
provides an essential reference for further development of metamaterial sensors.

1. Introduction frequency waves have stronger penetrability in nonpolar materials than

Metamaterials are artificial periodic electromagnetic materials with
subwavelength structures [1]. Because the conventional magnetic
permeability and dielectric permittivity cannot effectively describe the
properties of metamaterials, effective permeability and permittivity are
proposed based on the effective medium theory, whose values are
generally negative for metamaterials [2-5]. These unique electromag­
netic characteristics distinguish metamaterials from natural materials;
therefore, they have generated the interest of many researchers [6,7].
Tie Jun Cui et al. [8] presented the concept of digital coding and pro­
grammable materials that can process digital information using field
programmable gate arrays. Quynh Le-Van et al. [9] introduced elec­
troluminescent metamaterials based on metal nano-inclusions hybri­
dised with colloidal quantum dots. In recent years, studies focusing on
the terahertz band have been fully developed with the successive
emergence of stable terahertz sources and sensitive terahertz wave de­
tectors [10]. Terahertz waves are electromagnetic waves whose fre­
quency lies between those of microwaves and infrared waves [11]. This
infrared waves. In addition, terahertz waves are characterized by a low
photon energy and the ability to reveal significant spectral information
of a material [12-16]. Traditional optical sensors mostly use non-
tuneable materials (e.g., Au, MgF2, Ti–Al2O3) [6,17,18], which can
only operate within a fixed frequency band once their structure is
determined, and their application flexibility is largely restricted. Gra­
phene is a novel two-dimensional material consisting of a single layer of
carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice, with a unique electronic
band structure. Graphene possesses excellent plasma characteristics
similar to those of metals, and thus, it has a wide range of potential
applications in thermology, mechanics, electricity, and optics [19,20].
In experiments, the Fermi energy level and conductivity of graphene can
be adjusted by an applied voltage or chemical doping, thereby enabling
active tuning of the sensor [21]. Jacob Linder et al. [22] proposed a
graphene-based tuneable metamaterial absorber with an ultra-broad
range of beam incidence angles and investigated its performance.
Since the exposure of several food safety issues, food additives have
become a well-known representative of illegal production for

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: zhujun1985@gxnu.edu.cn (J. Zhu).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.measurement.2022.110738
Received 13 October 2021; Received in revised form 23 December 2021; Accepted 13 January 2022
Available online 10 February 2022
0263-2241/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
J. Zhu and C. Wu Measurement 192 (2022) 110738

profiteering. However, with an appropriate method, food additives will potential), and the latter can be changed by an applied bias voltage [21].
not be harmful to human health and ensure food safety [23]. For This suggests that the conductivity of graphene can be actively tuned by
instance, amino acids and amino acid salts can prevent food deteriora­ applying a bias voltage. A schematic of the tuning is shown in Fig. 1c. In
tion in terms of colour, aroma, taste, and appearance and improve the this diagram, the material between the graphene and the gold electrodes
flavour and nutritional value of the food. Sodium glycinate yielded by is a plasma layer, which induces the concentration of carriers and allows
the neutralization of glycine and sodium carbonate can be used as a the incidence of terahertz waves into the sensor. The plasma layer has
nutritional additive [24-26]. Amino acid additives are playing a signif­ excellent mechanical flexibility, fatigue stability, electrochemical
icant role in the food industry. Therefore, it is worthwhile to study their properties, and thermal stability [37]. It is well suited as a medium
detection and identification methods. At present, most amino acid between graphene and gold electrodes, as tested in many previous ex­
detection techniques are limited by laborious equipment operation periments [38]. The × and y directions of the unit cell are set as the
procedures, long detection periods, and low accuracy, which cannot periodic boundary conditions, and a unit cell was treated as a whole in
meet the requirement of high-standard amino acid identification in the the subsequent research and analysis.
food industry [27,28]. In our simulation experiments, the Kudo formula is employed to
express the effective surface conductivity of graphene,σg [39] as follows
2. Structural geometry and principle in Eq. (1–3):
σ g (ω, μc , Γ, T) = Ng (σintra + σ inter ) (1)
2.1. Metamaterial sensor composed of multiple layers
∫∞
Combining previous research and new exploration, a novel meta­ σ intra =
− ie2
ξ[
∂fd (ξ) ∂fd ( − ξ)
− ]dξ (2)
material sensor is proposed [29-33]. Fig. 1a shows a three-dimensional 2
π ħ (ω + 2iΓ) ∂ξ ∂ξ
schematic of the metamaterial sensor formed of stacked layered mate­
0

rials. The sensor comprises periodic arrays of unit cells whose main ∫∞
structure consists of a graphene four-opening square ring (GFSR) and a ie2 (ω + 2iΓ) fd ( − ξ) − fd (ξ)
σ inter = dξ (3)
golden hemisphere (GH). The unit cells below successively are a SiO2 πħ2 (ω + 2iΓ)2 − 4(ξ/ħ)2
0
depletion layer, Au reflecting layer, and Si buffer layer. The depletion ( )
layer (H = 3μm) causes the loss of incident electromagnetic waves. The where fd (ξ) = [exp ξ− μc
+ 1]− 1
is the Fermi–Dirac distribution. σ intra
KB T
reflecting layer (σAu = 4.09 × 107 S/m) reflects the incident electro­
magnetic waves to the depletion layer. Based on the Fresnel equations, and σinter are the intraband and interband conductivity of graphene,
the conductivity of a metallic object is relatively high because they have respectively. The Fermi energy level of graphene, μc = 0.6eV. Whether
numerous free electrons. Thus, the loss of refracted waves is expected to the intra-band or inter-band conductivity of graphene plays a dominant
be extensive, and the reflection waves are also expected to be significant. role depends on the magnitude of the chemical potential of graphene
Consequently, it is difficultly for electromagnetic waves to penetrate a and the frequency bands considered in the study [40-42]. In this study,
metallic object, thus causing a shielding effect [34]. The buffer layer the wave frequency is lower than 30 THz, and the chemical potential is
protects a structure from external mechanical damage [35]. The top of above 0.1 eV. Based on the Pauli exclusion principle, the inter-band
the metamaterial sensor structure is a covering layer with a refractive transitions are negligible, and the intra-band transitions play a domi­
index of n (D = 7μm). In the theoretical analysis, the covering layer was nant role [43]. At this point, the conductivity of graphene can be
set as air (n = 1.0). In the experiments, an electromagnetic wave was exclusively expressed by the intra-band conductivity, and the Kubo
incident vertically from above the structure, and the magnetic and formula can be simplified as Eq. (4) [44]:
electric fields were perpendicular to each other [36]. Fig. 1b is the top iμc e2
view of the main structure of a unit cell. The geometric parameters of σ g (ω, μc , Γ, T) = Ng 2
(4)
πħ (ω + 2iΓ)
L = 1.8μm, l = 1.0μm, g = 0.2μm, and R = 0.36μm represent the outer
edge length, inner edge length, and opening width of the GFSR structure where Ng = 1 is the number of graphene layers, ω = 2πf is the
and the radius of the GH structure, respectively. angular frequency of the incident wave, Γ = 1/2τ is the scattering rate,
Related literature show that the conductivity of graphene has a linear τ = 1ps is the relaxation time, T = 300K is the experimental tempera­
relationship with its Fermi energy level (also known as the chemical ture, kB is the Boltzmann constant, ħ is the reduced Planck constant, and
e represents the elementary charge. Fig. 2 shows the relationship

Fig. 1. (a) The three-dimensional schematic diagram of a metamaterial sensor composed of multiple layers of materials; (b) the top view of the main structure of a
unit cell; (c) the schematic diagram of a graphene Fermi level modulated by voltage.

2
J. Zhu and C. Wu Measurement 192 (2022) 110738

Fig. 2. Graphene conductivity models under chemical potentials of 0.5–0.8 eV: (a) real part and (b) imaginary part.

between the incident wave frequency and the conductivity when the
graphene chemical potential is 0.5–0.8 eV.
The chemical potential of graphene, μc , is experimentally tuned by
an applied bias voltage Vg , and the relationship Eq. (5) between these
two properties is as follows [45]:

μc 2 e
Vg ≈ (5)
πεr ε0 ħ2 v2F
where εr is the relative permittivity of the dielectric layer, ε0 is the
permittivity of vacuum, Fermi velocity vF = c/300, and c is the speed of
light in vacuum. The relative permittivity of graphene is expressed as in
Eq. (6) [46]
iσ g
εg = 1 + (6)
ωε0 Ng tg

2.2. Spectra of metamaterial sensors
In the experiments, we used a numerical analysis software to study
the proposed metamaterial sensor. The normalized absorption of the
sensor is defined as A = 1 − |S11 |2 − |S21 |2 . The reflection coefficient of
the incident port is S11 = (Zin − Z0 )/(Zin +Z0 ), where Zin is the intrinsic
impedance of the sensor and Z0 ≈ 377Ω is the wave impedance in vac­
uum. S21 is the transmission coefficient of the outgoing port [47,48].
Appropriate structural design and parameter adjustment can ensure that
there is no electromagnetic wave emission from the incident port when
the impedance matching conditions are satisfied [49]. In addition, the
gold reflecting layer can shield the transmission; thus, S21 = 0.
Therefore, A = 1 − |S11 |2 . When the frequency of the incident wave
reaches the inherent frequency of the unit cell, the induced resonance
will trap most of the energy inside the unit cell. After interactions with
the reflecting and depletion layers, the incident wave energy is gradually
attenuated, and the absorbing ability of the sensor continually increases
[50]. Fig. 3 shows three spectra of the proposed metamaterial sensor. It
can be clearly seen that the transmission spectrum of the entire structure
is constantly zero, which confirms the transmission shielding effect.
Moreover, the absorption and reflection spectra present a complemen­
tary relationship, with the highest absorption and lowest reflection
occurring at the same frequency. It can be observed that the absorption
spectrum (blue line) shows two distinct peaks in the entire operating
frequency band. We denote the peak at the lower frequency as mode λ1
and at the higher frequency one as mode λ2 . Specifically, modes λ1 and
λ2 are located at 5.9 THz and 8.1 THz with absorptivity of 99.86% and
99.99%, respectively.
Fig. 3. Spectra of proposed metamaterial sensor: (A) normalized absorption,
(R) normalized reflection, and (T) normalized transmission.
3. Results and discussions
3.1. Analysis of spectrum characteristics
Fig. 4a–d illustrate the normalized absorption spectra after adjusting
some of the geometric parameters of the sensor. In general, the modes
successfully maintain an absorptivity above 90%. First, it can be seen
from Fig. 4a that the absorption spectra shift toward higher frequency as
g increases, and mode λ1 has a longer offset distance than mode λ2 . It is
noteworthy that the absorptivity of both modes λ1 and λ2 is maintained
at a high level, close to complete absorption. Fig. 4b shows that the
absorption spectra shift toward lower frequency with increasing l. In this
case, the absorptivity of mode λ1 initially increases and then decreases,
whereas that of mode λ2 remains stable and subsequently slightly de­
creases. Overall, both modes reach their optimal absorptivity at l =
1.0μm. As demonstrated in Fig. 4c, the absorption spectra shift toward
lower frequency with increasing L, and mode λ1 has a shorter offset
distance than mode λ2 . The absorptivity of mode λ1 exhibits an
increasing trend. When L = 1.9μm, there is a useless peak at 8–9 THz
generated by the nonlinear effect, and the absorptivity of mode λ2 shows
a decreasing trend. Therefore, the optimal geometric parameter in this
case is L = 1.8μm. Fig. 4d shows that as R increases, the centre frequency
and the absorptivity of mode λ1 change slightly. When R = 0.2, 0.3, and
0.5μm, mode λ2 presents numerous useless peaks. The highest absorp­
tivity of mode λ2 occurs at R = 0.4μm, which is also the optimal

3
J. Zhu and C. Wu
Fig. 4. Effects of adjusting geometric parameters on absorptivity of sensor: (a) opening width g of GFSR, (b) inner edge length l of GFSR, (c) outer edge length L of
GFSR, and (d) radius R of GH.
geometric parameter. By the optimization and adjustment of the struc­
tural geometric parameters, the proposed metamaterial sensor can
achieve almost perfect absorption and tuning mode intervals. These
excellent characteristics can enable the designed sensor to meet the re­
quirements of high-quality sensing under different conditions, which
significantly expands its practical application range.
In practical industrial production and daily life applications, insen­
sitivity to both the polarization state and incident angle is an important
criterion for sensor assessment [51]. In the experiments, we used
transverse magnetic (TM)/transverse electric (TE) polarized waves with
different incident angles, alpha, to conduct parametric scanning of the
proposed metamaterial sensor. As shown in Fig. 5a, both modes λ1 and
λ2 can achieve nearly perfect absorption under the TM wave with an
incident angle alpha ≤ 40◦ . As alpha increases to 60◦ , the absorptivity of
mode λ1 remains unchanged, whereas that of mode λ2 starts to decline.
Fig. 5. Normalized absorption spectra under different alpha values: (a) TM and (b) TE.
4
Measurement 192 (2022) 110738
Specifically, when alpha = 60◦ , the absorptivity values of modes λ1 and
λ2 are 99.55% and 91.30%, respectively. As alpha continually increases
to 80◦ , the absorptivity of mode λ1 gradually decreases to 80%. There is
a 48% absorption peak at a higher frequency caused by the nonlinear
effect. The absorption spectra under the TE wave and different alpha
values are illustrated in Fig. 5b. With increasing alpha, the absorptivity
of both modes λ1 and λ2 decrease regularly. When 0◦ ≤ alpha ≤ 40◦ , both
modes realize nearly perfect absorption. As alpha continually increases,
the absorptivity values at alpha = 60◦ and alpha = 80◦ are 87.25% and
50.65%, respectively. A comprehensive analysis shows that the pro­
posed structure can maintain a 95% absorptivity when 0◦ ≤ alpha ≤ 40◦ .
This adequately exhibits that the proposed metamaterial sensor has
certain levels of insensitivity to the polarization state and the incident
angle. Owing to the high-level geometric symmetry of the proposed
structure, the sensor can adapt to a wide range of incident angles.
J. Zhu and C. Wu
Fig. 6. Absorption spectra under Fermi energy levels of 0.5–0.8 eV.
The normalized absorption spectra after adjusting the Fermi energy
level of graphene (0.5–0.8 eV) are shown in Fig. 6. The figure exhibits
that the absorption spectra shift toward higher frequency as the Fermi
energy level increases, and the absorptivity of both modes λ1 and λ2
increase and decrease. Specifically, modes λ1 and λ2 present shifts to
higher frequency by 1.34 THz (5.40–6.74 THz) and 1.87 THz (7.43–9.30
THz), respectively, and the corresponding changes in their absorptivity
are 8.71% (91.15%–99.86%) and 12.89% (87.10%–99.99%). The
experimental results demonstrate well that the sensor can be dynami­
cally tuned by changing the Fermi energy level of graphene.
3.2. Sensing performance
Sensitivity (S value) is an important index for assessing sensor per­
formance. In the experiments, test samples with different refractive
indices were simulated by changing the refractive index n of the
covering layer [52]. As shown in Fig. 7a, as the refractive index of the
test sample increases from 1.00 to 1.08, the absorption spectra regularly
shift toward lower frequency. Specifically, mode λ1 has an offset from
Fig. 7. (a) Absorption spectra corresponding to different refractive indices of test samples and (b) scatter plot of variation in centre frequencies of modes λ1 and λ2
with refractive index n.
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Measurement 192 (2022) 110738
5.9 THz to 5.81 THz, and mode λ2 from 8.1 THz to 7.98 THz. The ab­
sorptivity of both modes is maintained above 99.98%. Fig. 7b is a scatter
plot demonstrating the changes in the centre frequencies of modes λ1
and λ2 with refractive index n.
Subsequently, the data in the scatter plot were fitted using the least
square method, which yielded the following linear Eq. (7–8) of modes λ1
and λ2 with respect to n:
λ1 = 6.996 − 1.1n (7)
λ2 = 9.600 − 1.5n (8)
It can be seen from the above equations that when the refractive
index of an unknown sample to be tested is defined, the centre wave­
lengths of the modes λ1 and λ2 are also determined. Therefore, the
refractive index of a test sample can be inferred from the wavelength
positions of modes λ1 and λ2 , and the sample type can be identified, thus
realizing the sensing function. In this study, the sensitivity of the sensor
is expressed by the slopes of the best-fitting lines, which are 1.1 THz/RIU
(9846 nm/RIU) and 1.5 THz/RIU (6962 nm/RIU), respectively. We
J. Zhu and C. Wu Measurement 192 (2022) 110738

Table 1 detection and identification method can be designed based on the

Comparisons of the proposed sensor with other reported sensors. different refractive indices of aqueous amino acid solutions.
References Refractive Wave Sensitivity Material Design Five amino acids (alanine (C3H7NO2), proline (C5H9NO2), glycine
index range band of main complexity (C2H5NO2), arginine (C6H14N4O2), and methionine (C5H11O2NS)) were
(THz) structure selected for the experiments, and their structural formulae are shown in
[53] (1.5–2.0) 0.65–0.85 0.28 THz/ Metal bar, Simple Fig. 8. The amino acid samples were produced by Hebei Pengyu
RIU (Max) fork-like Biotechnology Co., Ltd.. Its appearance of polycrystalline powders and
structure, purity over 99%. In the food industry, alanine can improve the taste of
split ring
[54] – 0.50–2.10 1.027 Gold bar, Hard
artificial sweeteners, and proline can serve as a nutritional supplement
THz/RIU graphene and produce a unique flavour when heated with sugar. Glycine can be
belts used as a stabilizer, preservative, and flavour enhancer; arginine and
bridge methionine can thicken jams and improve their stability and serve as
[55] (1.0–1.6) 0.50–2.50 0.456 Metal Simple
dispersants in fruit juices and wines [59-61]. Because the solubilities of
THz/RIU double
splits ring different amino acids are different, we have known from the pre-
[56] (1.0–1.6) 0.70–1.30 0.138 Metal Simple experiments that a concentration of 4 g/100 mL can be achieved by
THz/RIU strip, the solubility of the five amino acids in this study. At an experimental
(Max) single-gap temperature of 27 ℃, we prepared the five types of 4 g/100 mL aqueous
split ring
This work (1.00–1.08) 4.00–10.0 1.5 THz/ GFSR, GH Moderate
amino acid solutions and measured their refractive indices using a WAY-
RIU (Max) 2WAJ Abbe refractometer manufactured by Shanghai LICHEN-BX In­
strument Technology Co., Ltd. The measurement results are listed in
Table 2, and an overview of the experimental design is illustrated in
listed the sensitivity and some parameters of the other reported sensors Fig. 9.
as a comparisons in Table 1. The results indicate that the metamaterial It is evident from Table 3 that the refractive indices of the five amino
sensor proposed in this work has a significant advantage in terms of acid solutions obtained by several measurements have slight fluctua­
sensitivity. tions. However, the refractive indices of arginine and glycine have the
same value many times. To reduce errors and improve the experimental
accuracy, we discarded the glycine sample and selected the remaining
3.3. Application in amino acid detection
four amino acid samples for the subsequent experiments. In the exper­
iments, each amino acid solution to be tested is injected into the
Amino acids are a group of organic compounds containing an amino
covering layer of the proposed sensor, and the refractive index of the air
group and a carboxyl group. They are fundamental units that constitute
layer in the simulation software is set to the average refractive index of
proteins of living organisms [57]. Amino acids have been commonly
used in fields closely related to the daily life of people, such as the
pharmaceutical, food, and chemical industries. During the thriving
Table 2
development of the food industry of China, amino acid additives played Refractive index of five amino acid solutions at 27℃.
a significant role in technical innovation and improved food quality and
Amino Acid Category Actual Measured Refractive Average Refractive Index
safety [23-26]. The methods currently used for detecting and identifying
Index（27℃）
amino acids mainly include gas chromatography, liquid chromatog­ Alanine 1.3395 1.3396 1.3395 1.33953
raphy, spectrophotometry, capillary electrophoresis, and near-infrared
Proline 1.3400 1.3400 1.3400 1.34000
spectroscopy. However, most of them have the shortcomings of long Glycine 1.3405 1.3405 1.3405 1.34050
detection periods, high detection difficulty, and inability to achieve non- Arginine 1.3407 1.3405 1.3405 1.34056
destructive detection [27,28]. Based on the related literature, some Methionine 1.3410 1.3409 1.3410 1.34096
amino acids are readily soluble in water [58]. Therefore, a novel

Fig. 8. Structural formulae of studied amino acids: (a) alanine, (b) proline, (c) glycine, (d) arginine, and (e) methionine.

6
J. Zhu and C. Wu Measurement 192 (2022) 110738

Fig. 9. Overview of experimental design.

Table 3
Center frequency and absorption spectrum at four refractive indices.
Mode n1 n2 n3 n4 Absorption spectrum

λ1 (THz) 5.50655 5.50600 5.50530 5.50485

λ2 (THz) 7.57074 7.56996 7.56906 7.56840

the four amino acid solutions successively. The centre frequencies of In addition, in this study, we investigated the effects of different
modes λ1 and λ2 and details of the corresponding absorption spectra at concentrations of amino acid solutions and different experimental
different refractive indices are provided in Table 3. temperatures on the amino acid detection. Aqueous solutions of arginine
As can be seen from the Table 3, as the refractive index of the filled and proline with varying gradients of concentration were measured by a
solution increases, both modes λ1 and λ2 regularly shift toward lower refractometer at an experimental temperature of 23 ℃. We used the
frequency. We have linearly fitted the refractive index, n, to the centre standard deviation formula to estimate the uncertainty of the data
frequencies of mode λ1 and mode λ2 , respectively, and obtained the group. The final result showed that the overall standard deviation of
following Eqs. (9)–(10): each data group was not greater than 0.00002. The final test results are
summarised in Table 4, which clear mirrored that the refractive index of
λ1 = 7.1102 − 1.1972n (9)
the solution presents an increasing trend with increasing solution con­
centration. At 23 ℃ and 27 ℃, the average refractive index values of 4
λ2 = 9.7576 − 1.6326n (10)
g/100 mL Arginine differ by 0.0001, whereas the difference is 0.00039
These linear expressions illustrate a one-to-one correspondence be­ for proline solutions under the same circumstances, approximately four
tween the centre frequency of the mode peak and the refractive index. In times greater than the former difference. This indicates that it is
addition, the relevant experiments have demonstrated that the refrac­
tive index intervals of the four amino acid solutions do not overlap with
each other. Therefore, using Eqs. (9) and (10), we can identify the type Table 4
of amino acid by measuring the centre frequency of the mode peak of Refractive index of amino acid solution under different gradient concentration.
one of the four amino acid solutions. This is an indirect method of amino Amino Average Refractive Index (23℃)
acid identification based on absorption spectra without directly ana­ Acid
2 g/100 4 g/100 6 g/100 8 g/100 10 g/100
lysing the amino acids. Because terahertz pulses have low energy, the mL mL mL mL mL
biomolecules under detection will not be photoionized. Thus, this
Arginine 1.33700 1.34095 1.34445 1.34805 1.35160
method can achieve effective non-destructive detection.
Proline 1.33630 1.33990 1.34270 1.34565 1.34925

7
J. Zhu and C. Wu
necessary to precisely control the variables such as temperature when
testing different concentrations of amino acid solutions, owing to the
criticality of these variables to the accuracy of the results.
4. Conclusions
In this paper, we proposed a metamaterial sensor whose unit cell
structure consists of a graphene four-opening square ring and a golden
hemisphere. A unit cell comprises a covering layer, SiO2 depletion layer,
Au reflecting layer, and Si buffer layer. A numerical analysis software
was employed in the experimental simulations, and the absorptivity
values of modes λ1 and λ2 reached 99.86% and 99.99%, respectively. We
considered the structural geometric parameters, polarization states, and
incident angles in the analysis of the sensing characteristics. We also
verified that active tuning of the sensor can be achieved by adjusting the
Fermi energy level of graphene. In the sensing performance analysis, the
obtained sensitivity values of modes λ1 and λ2 are 1.1 THz/RIU (9846
nm/RIU) and 1.5 THz/RIU (6962 nm/RIU), respectively. Finally, we
used the proposed metamaterial sensor for the detection of amino acid
additives. The results showed that the proposed sensor can accurately
identify the four amino acids selected by 100% in this study. However,
the sensor cannot yet distinguish the aqueous amino acid solutions
having similar refractive indices. The research of this paper has provided
an essential reference for further development of metamaterial sensors.
Funding
This project is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of
China (Grant No. 51965007), Guangxi Natural Science Foundation
(2021GXNSFAA220013).
Data availability
Data underlying the results presented in this paper can be obtained
from the authors upon reasonable request.
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.
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