Ultrasensitive Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensor with a Feature of Dynamically Tunable Sensitivity and High Figure of Merit for Cancer Detection

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and it is well known that an early detection of cancer in a human body will provide an opportunity to cure the cancer. Early detection of cancer depends on the sensitivity of the measuring device and method, where the lowest detectable concentr...

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Main Authors: Ravi Gollapalli, Jonathan Phillips, Puneet Paul
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2023-06-01
Series:Sensors
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/12/5590
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author Ravi Gollapalli
Jonathan Phillips
Puneet Paul
author_facet Ravi Gollapalli
Jonathan Phillips
Puneet Paul
author_sort Ravi Gollapalli
collection DOAJ
description Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and it is well known that an early detection of cancer in a human body will provide an opportunity to cure the cancer. Early detection of cancer depends on the sensitivity of the measuring device and method, where the lowest detectable concentration of the cancerous cell in a test sample becomes a matter of high importance. Recently, Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) has proven to be a promising method to detect cancerous cells. The SPR method is based on the detection of changes in refractive indices of samples under testing and the sensitivity of such a SPR based sensor is related to the smallest detectable change in the refractive index of the sample. There exist many techniques where different combinations of metals, metal alloys and different configurations have been shown to lead to high sensitivities of the SPR sensors. Based on the difference in the refractive index between a normal healthy cell and a cancerous cell, recently, SPR method has been shown to be applicable to detect different types of cancers. In this work, we propose a new sensor surface configuration that comprises of gold-silver-graphene-black phosphorus to detect different cancerous cells based on the SPR method. Additionally, recently we proposed that the application of electric field across gold-graphene layers that form the SPR sensor surface can provide enhanced sensitivity than that is possible without the application of electrical bias. We utilized the same concept and numerically studied the impact of electrical bias across the gold-graphene layers combined with silver and black Phosphorus layers which forms the SPR sensor surface. Our numerical results have shown that electrical bias across the sensor surface in this new heterostructure can provide enhanced sensitivity compared to the original unbiased sensor surface. Not only that, our results have shown that as the electrical bias increases, the sensitivity increases up to a certain value and stabilizes at a still improved sensitivity value. Such dependence of sensitivity on the applied bias provides a dynamic tunability of the sensitivity and figure-of-merit (FOM) of the sensor to detect different types of cancer. In this work, we used the proposed heterostructure to detect six different types of cancers: Basal, Hela, Jurkat, PC12, MDA-MB-231, and MCF-7. Comparing our results to work published recently, we were able to achieve an enhanced sensitivity ranging from 97.2 to 1851.4 (deg/RIU) and FOM values ranging from 62.13 to 89.81 far above the values presented recently by other researchers.
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spelling doaj.art-c329079cabd5455495a130c471ec2bda2023-11-18T12:33:15ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202023-06-012312559010.3390/s23125590Ultrasensitive Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensor with a Feature of Dynamically Tunable Sensitivity and High Figure of Merit for Cancer DetectionRavi Gollapalli0Jonathan Phillips1Puneet Paul2Department of Engineering and Industrial Professions, University of North Alabama, Florence, AL 35632, USADepartment of Engineering and Industrial Professions, University of North Alabama, Florence, AL 35632, USADepartment of Engineering and Industrial Professions, University of North Alabama, Florence, AL 35632, USACancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and it is well known that an early detection of cancer in a human body will provide an opportunity to cure the cancer. Early detection of cancer depends on the sensitivity of the measuring device and method, where the lowest detectable concentration of the cancerous cell in a test sample becomes a matter of high importance. Recently, Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) has proven to be a promising method to detect cancerous cells. The SPR method is based on the detection of changes in refractive indices of samples under testing and the sensitivity of such a SPR based sensor is related to the smallest detectable change in the refractive index of the sample. There exist many techniques where different combinations of metals, metal alloys and different configurations have been shown to lead to high sensitivities of the SPR sensors. Based on the difference in the refractive index between a normal healthy cell and a cancerous cell, recently, SPR method has been shown to be applicable to detect different types of cancers. In this work, we propose a new sensor surface configuration that comprises of gold-silver-graphene-black phosphorus to detect different cancerous cells based on the SPR method. Additionally, recently we proposed that the application of electric field across gold-graphene layers that form the SPR sensor surface can provide enhanced sensitivity than that is possible without the application of electrical bias. We utilized the same concept and numerically studied the impact of electrical bias across the gold-graphene layers combined with silver and black Phosphorus layers which forms the SPR sensor surface. Our numerical results have shown that electrical bias across the sensor surface in this new heterostructure can provide enhanced sensitivity compared to the original unbiased sensor surface. Not only that, our results have shown that as the electrical bias increases, the sensitivity increases up to a certain value and stabilizes at a still improved sensitivity value. Such dependence of sensitivity on the applied bias provides a dynamic tunability of the sensitivity and figure-of-merit (FOM) of the sensor to detect different types of cancer. In this work, we used the proposed heterostructure to detect six different types of cancers: Basal, Hela, Jurkat, PC12, MDA-MB-231, and MCF-7. Comparing our results to work published recently, we were able to achieve an enhanced sensitivity ranging from 97.2 to 1851.4 (deg/RIU) and FOM values ranging from 62.13 to 89.81 far above the values presented recently by other researchers.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/12/5590cancer detectionsurface plasmon resonancebiosensor sensitivityelectric fieldgrapheneblack phosphorus
spellingShingle Ravi Gollapalli
Jonathan Phillips
Puneet Paul
Ultrasensitive Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensor with a Feature of Dynamically Tunable Sensitivity and High Figure of Merit for Cancer Detection
Sensors
cancer detection
surface plasmon resonance
biosensor sensitivity
electric field
graphene
black phosphorus
title Ultrasensitive Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensor with a Feature of Dynamically Tunable Sensitivity and High Figure of Merit for Cancer Detection
title_full Ultrasensitive Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensor with a Feature of Dynamically Tunable Sensitivity and High Figure of Merit for Cancer Detection
title_fullStr Ultrasensitive Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensor with a Feature of Dynamically Tunable Sensitivity and High Figure of Merit for Cancer Detection
title_full_unstemmed Ultrasensitive Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensor with a Feature of Dynamically Tunable Sensitivity and High Figure of Merit for Cancer Detection
title_short Ultrasensitive Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensor with a Feature of Dynamically Tunable Sensitivity and High Figure of Merit for Cancer Detection
title_sort ultrasensitive surface plasmon resonance sensor with a feature of dynamically tunable sensitivity and high figure of merit for cancer detection
topic cancer detection
surface plasmon resonance
biosensor sensitivity
electric field
graphene
black phosphorus
url https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/12/5590
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AT jonathanphillips ultrasensitivesurfaceplasmonresonancesensorwithafeatureofdynamicallytunablesensitivityandhighfigureofmeritforcancerdetection
AT puneetpaul ultrasensitivesurfaceplasmonresonancesensorwithafeatureofdynamicallytunablesensitivityandhighfigureofmeritforcancerdetection