Optical Fiber Technology 54 (2020) 102123

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Optical Fiber Technology

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

Photonic crystal biosensor for refractive index based cancerous cell T

detection
⁎
Abinash Panda, Pukhrambam Puspa Devi
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Silchar, Assam 788010, India

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: A novel technique has been reported in the present research to sense the nature of different cells either normal or
Photonic crystal waveguide cancerous by employing a 2-D photonic crystal waveguid (PCW), where the suggested structure is realized
Sensing of cancer cells through 5 × 5 silicon based rods etched on a square lattice having a central defect with air as the background.
PWE To envisage accurate sensing, we have focused on two groups of live cells, out of which one is normal cell group
Electric field distribution
(INOK) and the other one is cancerous cell group (YD-10B). Plane wave expansion (PWE) method has been
Dispersion effect
Scattering loss
suitably manipulated to realize electric field distribution and peak reflected wavelength in the proposed PCW
structure. Various structure parameters such as lattice spacing, diameter of circular rods and nature of the
background material have engaged as crucial roles for the accomplishment of proper sensing of normal and
cancer cells. The simulation outcomes asserted that for normal cells, reflected wavelengths fall in the orange
color wavelength range whereas for cancerous cells, the reflected wavelengths lie in the yellow color wavelength
range. Further, the detailed investigations on negative dispersion coefficient, scattering loss and nonlinear
coefficient are carried out for the proposed structure by separately considering the normal cells and cancerous
cells. Apart from this, a high sensitivity of 2360.12 nm/RIU, a very low resolution of 1.78 × 10−6 and high
quality factor of 99.765 is achieved for the proposed sensor which claims the accuracy in sensing of normal cells
and cancerous cells. Moreover, the aforementioned sensing principles open up a convenient and simple way to
sense the cancer cells, which can find a suitable application as a biosensor in biophotonics.

1. Introduction
Owing to the failure of medical science towards complete treatment
pertaining to cancer diseases, research on cancer diagnosis has been
intensified throughout the globe over the last few decades. These can-
cerous cells grow abnormally and develop as tumors, which can be
sensed through various medical diagnosis. To mitigate the deadly effect
of cancer, it is indispensable to detect the same in the early stage and to
accomplish the same, numerous types of clinical investigations are of-
fered in healthcare organizations to predict the current report of the cell
[1,2]. However, numerous exciting upshots vis-à-vis biophysics of the
live cancer cell can be acquired through the knowledge of its optical,
chemical and mechanical properties [3–6]. Recently, the interaction of
light with cells give rise to useful information pertaining to change in
optical properties of different cells. Most importantly, the refractive
index of the cell has gathered considerable attention and prolonged the
possibilities of detection of cell abnormalities. According to cancer
science, refractive indices of the normal cells are comparatively lower
than that of cancerous cells, which can be regarded as a noteworthy
measure in the detection and diagnosis of malignant cells [7,8]. Pho-
tonic sensors are deliberately designed for the detection of various bio
analytes by successfully transforming bio-entity into the electrical form
which can be easily scrutinized through the spectrometer [9–12]. The
differences between normal and cancerous cells are lucidly analysed
through their electrical properties [13] and electric field analysis
[14,15]. Moreover, the refractive indices of different analytes emerge as
important parameter to realise accurate biosensors [16–19]. Recently,
few works have been carried out which are based on the tabulated
optical properties of numerous tissues, but sufficient information about
living cells may not be obtained from this table. Different optical
[20,21]methodologies such as solution matching [22], refractometry
analysis [23,24] have been used for determination of the effective re-
fractive index of discrete living cells.
Nevertheless, interesting outcomes are exposed in the aforemen-
tioned references, but lack of investigations on the local refractive index
of cell is a matter of concern. Also, the devices and methodologies used
for sensing are quiet complex in the design point of view, which is
difficult to realise practically. Apart from this, none of the listed works

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: puspa.devi@ece.nits.ac.in (P. Puspa Devi).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yofte.2019.102123
Received 16 September 2019; Received in revised form 5 December 2019; Accepted 22 December 2019
1068-5200/ © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
A. Panda and P. Puspa Devi
in the literature has performed simultaneous analysis of sensor sensi-
tivity, resolution, quality factor and nonlinear coefficient. Moreover,
the aforesaid measuring parameters of the sensors are not up to the
mark to meet the challenge of the current sensing scenario.
Although several techniques for the detection of cancer cells have
been revealed in the literature, the present research is based on analysis
of a novel method to sense normal and cancerous cells within very little
time. To the best of our knowledge, first time we have analysed the
sensing of cancerous cells by investigating electric field distribution in a
simple 2D photonic crystal fiber structure. We have considered two
clusters of cell lines, human immortalized normal oral keratinocyte
(INOK) which in normal cells group and YD-10B cells which is can-
cerous [25]. Further, simultaneous analysis of peak reflected wave-
length, dispersion coefficient, scattering loss, sensitivity, sensor re-
solution, quality factor and nonlinear coefficient for both types of cell
groups enhance the novelty of the current research. Furthermore, all
the data incorporated in this research are based upon live cells, which
leads to accurate sensing of cancerous cells and normal cells. Moreover,
compact structure and simple methodologies are employed in this re-
search, which can be easily realised with newly advent technologies. In
addition to this, the simultaneous measurements of wavelength and
transmitted power permit the sensor operation in a wide refractive
index range with an optimum resolution and quality factor.
2. Proposed structure and operating principle
The current research deals with a simple 2-D square lattice type
photonic crystal structure consist of 5 × 5 silicon based circular rods
etched on it including a defect at the centre, whereas the background
material is considered to be air and the same has been delineated in
Fig. 1. The primary reason behind choosing such type of structure is to
exploit the effect of excellent light guidance through the defect area.
The proposed central defect based PCW is a hollow core fiber, where
the central defect acts as the core and surrounding silicon based rods act
as cladding. The prime principle behind efficient light guidance through
the defect is the bandgap guiding mechanism. The bandgap is basically
prohibited wavelength ranges, in which light is reflected back and
therefore unable to travel through the structure. Hence, owing to the
presence of bandgap, light is confined to the central defect region only
and thus cannot penetrate to the periodic cladding structure, which
creates a low loss waveguide along the defect area.
With the advent of new technologies, filling of air holes with dif-
ferent analytes in the proposed PCW is possible. Analytes can be filled
into the defect area by arc-fusion technique under high temperature.
Fig. 1. Crossectional view of the proposed PCW having a defect at the center.
2
Optical Fiber Technology 54 (2020) 102123
But the limitation of the above said technique is that appropriate care
has to be taken to avoid formation of more defects in the structure.
Nonetheless, numerous techniques offer flexibility in infiltrating ana-
lytes in the central core region of PCW, Yanyi Huang et al. [26] have
practically demonstrated an UV curable polymer and a multistep in-
jection-cure-cleave process, which came up as an efficient and unique
technique for selective infiltration of PCW. Thus, by following afore-
mentioned processes, normal cells and cencerous cells can be easily
infiltrated in the proposed structure.
Moreover, with the burgeoning of nanotechnology industries, our
proposed PCW structure can be easily fabricated by following various
methods such as sol-gel casting, drilling, stack and draw, extrusion
[27–29]. Specifically, extrusion technique suffers from high material
loss whereas the stack and draw method and drilling method are lim-
ited to closely packed geometries and few number of air holes respec-
tively. On the other hand, sol-gel technique leads to fabrication of
complex geometry PCW structures. Additionally, the sol-gel technique
offers great design flexibility which is indispensable for the design of
the proposed central defect based PCW. Also, the authors in recent
researches [30,31] have experimentally validated the aforementioned
promising techniques, which lead to fabrication of different PCW
structures with infiltration of analytes in the core.
The defect is created in the photonic crystal structure by removal of
a single rod from the center which is responsible for confinement of the
electric field within the defect area. Again, the structure parameters
such as lattice spacing, diameter of the circular rods and refractive
index of background material are suitably optimized to envisage ac-
curate sensing of cancerous cells. The dimension of the proposed square
lattice structure is considered to be 5 × 5 μm2 where lattice spacing is
chosen as 1000 nm, the diameter of each circular rod is selected as
450 nm and height of the silicon based rods is considered to be 500 nm.
The foremost reason for selecting the aforementioned values is that
perfect sensing characteristics can be perceived at these values of
structure parameters only. The refractive indices at the wavelength of
650 nm for INOK and YD-10B are listed in Table 1. From this table, it
has been clear that the refractive index of cancerous cell is higher as
compared to that of normal cell. This notable variation in the refractive
index between normal cell and cancer cell is marked as a consequence
of speedy cell splitting and multiplication in the number of cancer cells
leading to greater absorption of protein particles in the cellular orga-
nelles. This higher concentrations of protein particles is mainly re-
sponsible for the increase in the refractive index of cancerous cell.
Further, plane wave expansion method is manipulated with the
suggested photonic structure where the incident light wavelength is
taken as 650 nm. Furthermore, each of the considered live cells which
are listed in Table 1, are infiltrated in the central defect area and si-
mulated separately to achieve peak value of emitted electric field in-
tensity. Again, reflectance from the suggested structure is investigated
from the electric field and it is revealed that reflected wavelengths fall
in orange color wavelength for normal tissues whereas reflected wa-
velengths lie in yellow color wavelength range for the cancerous cells.
The above said sensing principle is realised at the optimized value of
structure parameters only. Apart from this, a significant shift is
Table 1
Refractive indices (R.I.) of normal cell group (INOK) and cancer cell group (YD-
10B) [25].
Normal cell group Cancer cell group
R.I. R.I.
INOK Cell 1 1.343 YD-10B Cell 1 1.369
Cell 2 1.344 Cell 2 1.371
Cell 3 1.345 Cell 3 1.372
Cell 4 1.348 Cell 4 1.377
Cell 5 1.351 Cell 5 1.378
A. Panda and P. Puspa Devi Optical Fiber Technology 54 (2020) 102123

observed in reflected wavelength, transmitted power, negative disper- 1

P= ε0 cnAE 2
sion coefficient, scattering loss and nonlinear coefficient for normal and 2 (9)
cancerous cells, which boost the probability to sense the cancer cells. where n signifies the refractive index of each infiltrated cells and A is
the area of the proposed square lattice.
3. Mathematical analysis Chromatic dispersion and Rayleigh scattering are key parameters to
figure out losses present in any system, which can be a suitable in-
The present research is based on sensing of cancer cells by using 2D dicator to realize different photonic sensors. The negative dispersion
photonic crystal structure through the analysis of electric field dis- coefficient [35,36] can be computed by using the following relation:
tribution and reflected wavelength. For the efficient investigation of the
2πc λ d 2R e [neff ]
electric field, plane wave expansion technique has been employed − D (λ ) = β2 =
λ2 c dλ2 (10)
owing to its ability towards mode calculation in the photonic crystal
structure. Further, Maxwell’s equations are used to govern the propa- where, β2 represents propagation constant, neff denotes the real part of
gation of electromagnetic waves through a dielectric medium, which is the effective refractive index and λ is the light wavelength.
given as Similarly, Rayleigh scattering present in the proposed PCW varies
with change in analyte characteristics. Rayleigh scattering (αr) [37–39]
∂D
∇×H=J+ (1) can be computed by using the following numerical expression,
∂t
1
∂B ∝r =
λ4
∑ Ai Pi
∇×E=− (2) i (11)
∂t
where, λ represents the reflected wavelength, A is the effective area of
∇. B = 0 (3) the light guiding region and P represents the power associated with the
normal and cancerous cells.
∇. D = ρ (4)
Aside this, another important characteristics of photonic crystal
where E and H represent the electric field and magnetic field respec- waveguide is the effective mode area which is generally referred to the
tively. Similarly, D and B signify the electric displacement field and effective area of the fiber core and the same can be calculated by using
magnetic induced field respectively whereas ρ and J denote free charge transverse electric field vector (E) over the entire cross sectional area of
density and free current density respectively. Eqs. (1) and (2) represent the photonic crystal waveguide. The effective area of the fiber core
curl of the corresponding vector field, whereas Eqs. (3) and (4) denote (Aeff) is defined as [40],
divergence of the respective vector fields. Now assuming the absence of 2
(∬ |E|2 dxdy )
any free charge and current, Maxwell’s equations can be further solved Aeff =
to acquire Helmholtz equation [32] for the realisation of electric field
∬ |E|4 dxdy (12)
distribution in the photonic crystal structure, which can be expressed as Nonlinear coefficient is an essential parameter to judge the sensing
2 performance of the PCW. Nonlinear coefficient is correlated with the
1 w
∇ × (∇ × E (r )) = ⎛ ⎞ E (r ) effective area of the fiber, which can be computed as follows [41–43],
∈r ⎝c⎠ (5)
2πn
The above expression is said to be eigenvalue equation, where E(r) γ=
λAeff (13)
w 2
symbolizes eigenvector corresponding to the electric field, ()
c
denotes
where n represents the nonlinear index coefficient of silicon and λ
eigenvalues and ∈r is the permittivity of the dielectric medium. Further
solving, Eq. (5) can be written as denotes the operating wavelength. In our simulation, n value has been
considered as 3.2*10−20 m2/W.
E (r ) = Ek . r (r ) × ei . k . r (6) Furthermore, realizing the importance of sensitivity in sensing nu-
merous analytes, we perform the wavelength sensitivity analysis, which
In the above equation, Ek . r represents the electric field as a function
can be expressed in accordance with reference [44]:
of considered square lattice periodicity.
Finally, the expression for electric field distribution can be achieved nm ΔλP
Sλ ⎛ ⎞=
in the form of Bloch wave which is expanded in terms of Fourier series ⎝ RIU ⎠ Δn (14)
over the entire lattice vector such that
where ΔλP is the shift in peak wavelength and Δn represents the
Ek, r (x , y ) = ∑ Ek,r (Gr ) e(i .(kx+Gx,r ).x +(ky+G y,r ).y) (7) refractive index difference.
In addition, resolution of the proposed sensor has been analyzed,
Where Ek . r (Gr ) is obtained by solving Eigen problem and Gx , Gy are which is regarded as another key parameter to judge the sensor per-
fourier series coefficients for harmonics. With the help of aforemen- formance. The resolution signifies the ability of a sensor to detect small
tioned mathematical analysis, we resolved the eigenvalue problem and change in refractive index with high accuracy and can be expressed as
obtained the electric field distribution in the proposed PCW. Further, [12]:
simulation results exposed that the fundamental mode of electric field
Δλmin
intensity is confined within the defect area which lead to spatial loca- R (RIU ) = Δna ×
Δλpeak (15)
lization of incident light in the defect state.
Again, the reflected wavelength (λR ) from the defect area can be Also, to realize the ability of the proposed PCW senor towards ef-
computed by the following numerical analysis [33], ficient sensing of cancerous cell, quality factor of the sensor must be
2hc highlighted. Quality factor can be expressed as [45],
λR =
ε0 E 2 (8) λd
Q=
λFWHM (16)
where h is planks constant, c is the speed of light, ε0 is permittivity of
free space and E is peak value of the electric field which is obtained In Eq. (16), λd denotes the peak reflected wavelength from the
from equation (7). Further transmitted power [34] from the proposed central defect of the PCW and λFWHM represents full wave half max-
photonic crystal fiber can be expressed as, imum wavelength of the reflected signal.

3
A. Panda and P. Puspa Devi Optical Fiber Technology 54 (2020) 102123

Fig. 3. (a): Signal emerged from defect area for cell 1 of YD-10B cell group (b):
Fig. 2. (a): Signal emerged from defect area for cell 1 of INOK cell group (b): Electric field distribution for cell 1 of YD-10B cell group.
Electric field distribution for cell 1 of INOK cell group.

4. Results and discussions

To comprehend the detailed process of sensing cancer cells, plane

wave expansion method is manipulated for simulation of electric field
distribution through the proposed PCW structure, where 5 × 5 silicon
based circular rods have been etched on a square lattice with a defect at
the center position and air being used as background material. Initially,
the proposed structure is optimized by choosing proper values of the
structure parameters to realize accurate sensing of cancer cells. Aside
from this, two types of cell groups are considered as analytes, out of
which one is normal cell group (INOK) and the other one is cancerous
cell group (YD-10B) whose refractive index data are assembled in
Table 1. Further, simulations are carried out to study the electric field
variation by employing PWE computational technique by infiltrating
each cell separately in the defect area of the proposed PCW. Fig. 2(a)
and (b) represent the emerged signal from the central defect area of the
photonic crystal fiber and the nonlinear variation of electric field dis-
tribution for the 1st cell of INOK cell group respectively. Similarly,
Fig. 3(a) and (b) define the signal appeared from the central defect area
and electric field distribution for the 1st cell of YD-10B cell group re-
spectively. The aforementioned figures signify 3-D graphs where the
electric field intensity in V/μm is plotted along the z-axis, length and
breadth of the proposed structure are denoted in the x-axis and y-axis
Fig. 2. (continued)
Fig. 3. (continued)
respectively. Besides this, the simulation results revealed that the fun-
damental mode of electric field intensity gets restricted within the de-
fect area only which leads to spatial localization of incident light in the
defect state only. Simulations are also performed for electric field dis-
tribution for other cells of INOK and ID-10B cell groups but not pre-
sented in the article as the details are mentioned. Although, the shape of
electric field distribution for both normal and cancer cell groups look
alike, but there exist remarkable change in the peak intensity of the
electric field distribution. Further, the reflected wavelength for each
considered cell is calculated by using Eq. (8) and listed in Table 2. In-
terestingly, it has been observed that all the reflected wavelengths fall
in orange color wavelength range between 604 nm and 623 nm for
normal cell group (INOK), whereas reflected wavelengths lie in 565 nm
to 579 nm which is yellow color wavelength range for all the con-
sidered cancerous cells (YD-10B cell group). Also, the peak intensity of
electric field distribution curve and reflected wavelengths for each cell
in INOK and YD-10B cell groups are listed in Table 2. So, by using this
novel approach, it is quite easy to detect cancer cells and normal cells
with the proposed simple and cost effective setup.
From Table 2, it is perceived that peak reflected wavelength is
shifted significantly from normal cells to the cancerous cells. This re-
markable wavelength shift can be a suitable measure towards sensing of
cancerous cells. Fig. 4 shows the variation of transmitted power in
primary y-axis and peak wavelength shift in secondary y-axis with

4
A. Panda and P. Puspa Devi Optical Fiber Technology 54 (2020) 102123

Table 2
List of peak intensity of the electric field and reflected wavelength for both
normal cells and cancerous cells.
Cell group Cell line Peak Peak reflected
intensity of wavelength
electric field (nm)
(V/μm)

INOK (Normal 1 2.686 622.09 All reflected

cells) 2 2.689 620.70 wavelengths
3 2.703 614.29 correspond to
4 2.715 609.82 orange color
5 2.724 604.85

YD-10B 1 2.785 578.64 All reflected

(Cancerous 2 2.792 575.64 wavelengths
cells) 3 2.798 573.28 correspond to
4 2.813 567.18 yellow color
5 2.816 565.97

respect to various cells under consideration. From Fig. 4, it is clear that

transmitted power and peak reflected wavelength varies almost linearly
for both normal cell group (INOK) and cancerous cell group (YD-10B).
Asides from this, it has been revealed that transmitted power increases
substantially from 0.3940 mW to 0.4118 mW for the change in the
infiltration of the normal cell group to the cancer cell group. Also, it has
been found that peak reflected wavelength fall significantly for cancer
cell group. The aforementioned variations in the transmitted power and
peak reflected wavelength can be understood owing to the unrestrained
growth and change in genetic characteristics of the cancer cells as
compared to the normal cells. Lastly, the aforesaid significant difference
in transmitted power and peak reflected wavelength between the two
considered cells groups can be regarded as good measure for accurate
sensing of cancer cells.
Additionally, sensing of cancer cells can be achieved by in-
vestigating the change in dispersion properties through the suggested
photonic crystal fiber. Negative dispersion is a strong function of the
refractive index of the infiltrated cell which eventually spread the signal
and reduce the speed of the signal. To realize the effect of dispersion,
we simulated the suggested optimized PCW structure by infiltrating
both normal cells and cancerous cells separately in the defect area.
Fig. 5 indicates the variation of dispersion in ns/nm.km over a broad
wavelength range for both types of considered cells. From this figure, it
is revealed that negative dispersion of −0.81 ns/nm.km is obtained for
Fig. 5. Variation of dispersion coefficient with respect to wavelength for both
INOK and YD-10B cell group.
normal cells (INOK) whereas negative dispersion of −0.72 ns/nm.km is
acquired for cancerous cells (YD-10B) at the considered input wave-
length of 650 nm. Hence, the more negative dispersed pulse is found for
the normal cells which indicate more light confinement within the
defect area and the PCW can compensate for more dispersion. On the
other hand, cancer cells show low negative dispersion which lead to low
confinement of light in the core and the PCW can compensate for less
dispersion. The primary reason behind low negative dispersion in case
of cancer cells is high refractive index and low reflected wavelength. As
the negative dispersion is increased with an increase in wavelength, so
cancer cells show low negative dispersion as compared to the normal
cells, which is in agreement with Eq. (10). Finally, the aforementioned
vital deviation in dispersion coefficient between normal cells and can-
cerous cells can be a good candidate for accurate sensing of cancer cells.
Further, scattering characteristics of the proposed PCW play a key
role in the sensing of cancer cells. To envisage the same, simulation is
carried out for exploring the scattering behavior of the optimized
photonic crystal fiber by infiltrating different cells in the defect area
and the simulation upshots are depicted in Fig. 6. Here, it is perceived
that scattering effect dominate in cancerous cells as the scattering of

Fig. 4. Variation in transmitted power and peak reflected wavelength for different infiltrated cells.

5
A. Panda and P. Puspa Devi
Fig. 6. Variation of scattering loss with respect to wavelength for both INOK
and YD-10B cell group.
2.4 dB/km is obtained for cancer cells whereas scattering of 1.1 dB/km
is observed for normal cells at the incident wavelength of 650 nm. This
notable increase in scattering is apparent owing to the abnormalities
that lie with the cancer cells. Hence the proposed photonic crystal fiber
is proficient towards exploiting sensing of infiltrated cells.
Nonlinear coefficient is an important parameter of PCW to judge its
potential towards sensing application, hence a high value of nonlinear
coefficient is desirable in PCW for efficient photonic sensors. Fig. 7 il-
lustrates the variation of nonlinear coefficient with respect to the op-
erating wavelength. From this figure, it is explored that nonlinearity is
more at lower wavelength as compared to higher wavelength. The
primary reason behind the above statement is that lower wavelength
fetches more vibration of atoms, which leads to increase the interaction
of photons with the atoms in the crystal structure and produces more
nonlinearity. Also, the simulation upshots revealed that nonlinearity is
more for cancer cells as compared to the normal cells due to small ef-
fective mode area for cancer cells. A high nonlinear coefficient of
100.6 W−1 Km−1 and 96.62 W−1 Km−1 is obtained in the proposed
PCW for cell 1 of cancer cell and normal cell group respectively, which
can act as a potential parameter for sensing of cancer cells.
Subsequently, we move on to explore the sensitivity of both normal
and cancerous cells using analytical Eq. (14). Here, we have realized
that a higher sensitivity of 2360.12 nm/RIU is obtained for cancerous
Fig. 7. Variation of nonlinear coefficient as a function of wavelength.
6
Optical Fiber Technology 54 (2020) 102123
cells. The apparent reason behind high sensitivity is the irregular
structure and high refractive index of cancerous cells as compared to
the normal cells. Afterward, the resolution of the proposed sensor is
evaluated by following Eq. (15). By considering Δna = 0.001,
Δλmin = 0.1, Δλpeak = 56.12 , very low resolution of 1.78 × 10−6 is
achieved for the proposed PCW based photonic sensor. The outcomes
indicate that a small change in cell refractive index of order 10−6 can be
precisely detected, which claim the effectiveness of the proposed bio-
sensor towards cancer cell detection. Finally, quality factor is computed
numerically with the help of Eq. (16). Interestingly, it is found that a
high quality factor of 99.765 is achieved for the proposed sensor, which
proves the efficacy of the same.
Along with this, comparison analysis of sensitivity, resolution and
quality factor of the proposed sensor with the previously reported
works has been carried out and listed in Table 3. From this table, it has
been clear that the proposed defect based PCW sensor shows maximum
sensitivity, minute sharp resolution and high quality factor as compared
to the previously reported researches, which justify the effectiveness of
the sensor.
5. Conclusions
An innovative approach is presented in the current research to sense
cancerous cells by employing 2D photonic crystal waveguide which
consist of 5 × 5 silicon based circular rods suspended in the air as
background with a defect at the center. Further PWE computational
method is employed to envisage electric field distribution and peak
reflected wavelength for each normal cells and cancerous cells by in-
filtrating them separately in the defect area. Remarkably, simulation
outcomes revealed that for normal cells, reflected wavelengths (604 nm
to 623 nm) fall in the orange color wavelength range whereas for
cancerous cells the reflected wavelengths (565 nm to 579 nm) belong to
yellow color wavelength range. Furthermore, transmitted power is
analyzed numerically where it is asserted that the suggested structure
emits substantially more power for cancerous cells. Also, simulation
upshots of dispersion effect, scattering loss and nonlinear coefficient
exposed that cancerous cells are possessed with low negative disper-
sion, high scattering loss and high nonlinear coefficient as compared to
normal cells. Finally, it is revealed that maximum sensitivity of
2360.12 nm/RIU, a very low resolution of 1.78 × 10−6 and high
quality factor of 99.765 can be achieved for the proposed sensor, which
claim the effectiveness of the sensor. So, with the above stated sensing
principles, the proposed structure can be an apt candidate for biopho-
tonics applications.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Abinash Panda: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis,
Investigation, Methodology, Software, Writing - original draft.
Pukhrambam Puspa Devi: Supervision, Validation, Visualization,
Writing - review & editing.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
ence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to extend their hearty thanks to the re-
viewers for their meticulous analysis of the manuscript and making
valuable suggestions for improving the quality and significance of the
manuscript for the scientific community.
A. Panda and P. Puspa Devi
Table 3
Performance comparison with different sensors.
Sensor structure Maximum sensitivity (nm/RIU)
Multi-hole PCF sensor 2000 nm/RIU
Tapered fiber coupler 2171 nm/RIU
θ-shaped microfiber resonator 2060.07 nm/RIU
Birefringent PCF sensor 2000 nm/RIU
Gold coated circular PCF sensor 2200 nm/RIU
2-D PCF based refractive index biosensor 720 nm/RIU
Square lattice defect based PCW sensor 2360.12 nm/RIU
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