Oblique and Polarization Independent Metasurface-Based Absorber for Bio-Sensing Applications

Abstract

In this paper, a submillimetric/THz metasurface polarization/oblique independent absorber is designed and characterized. The absorber is designed using a periodic arrangement of a modified split ring resonator unit cell. The symmetric absorber is insensitive to the variation of incident angles and polarization angles. The results confirm that perfect absorption is achieved (close to 100%) for either TM or TE polarization at 300 GHz. Moreover, the absorber is efficient for normal and oblique incident angle (above 90% for 45° angle of incidence). In all the presented cases, the full width half maximum bandwidth is 20 GHz. The absorber unit cell size is only 0.0052 λ₀ × 0.0052 λ₀ and it has a low-profile thickness = 0.0002 λ₀, at the operating frequency. Also, an absorber-based biosensor is presented. The sensing has proved the coating analyte thickness can be detected by shifting the absorption frequency. The maximum sensitivity is 24.9% RIU⁻¹ with a low-profile maximum of 50 µm thickness. Analytical formulas for the frequency shift have been extracted. The presented results are discussed based on 3D full-wave EM simulations.

KEYWORDS:

• Biosensors
• Metasurface
• Modified split ring resonator
• Submillimeter
• Terahertz

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ali Abdelsallam

Ali Abdelsallam received the BSc degree, in electrical engineering from the Electronic Engineering Department, Military Technical College, Cairo, Egypt in 2013 and received the MSc degree, with an excellent grade with honors, in electronic and communication engineering from Arab Academy For Science, Technology And Maritime Transport, Cairo, Egypt in 2021. His research has focused on different metasurface applications in the area of absorbers and millimeter bands. Also, his research includes EBG structures and millimetric applications. Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

Abdelhamid Gaafar

Abdelhamid Gaafar received the BSc degree in electrical engineering from the Electrical Engineering Department, Military Technical College, Cairo, Egypt in 1977. He received the MSc in Electrical Engineering, Al-Azhar University Cairo, Egypt in 1983. He received his PhD in electrical engineering in 1989, from Electrical Engineering and Applied Science, George Washington University, Washington DC. He was with the Military Technical College from 1989 to 2006, then from 2006–now as a professor of electrical engineering at Electronic and Communication Dept. Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Maritime Transport, Cairo Branch. Email: [email protected]

Mahmoud Abdalla

Mahmoud Abdalla received the BSc degree, with an excellent grade with honors, in electrical engineering from the Electrical Engineering Department, Military Technical College, Cairo, Egypt in 1995. He received the MSc degree in electrical engineering from Military Technical College in 2000, and the PhD in microwave and communication group, from the School of Electrical Engineering, Manchester University, UK, in 2009. He has been with Military Technical College since 1996 where he is a professor and leading the electromagnetic waves group in Electronic Engineering Department. Also, he has been visiting professor in the Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada since 2017. His research has focused on different metamaterial applications in microwave and millimeter bands specially microwave components, miniaturized multiband antennas, and ferrite components. Also, his research includes electromagnetic energy harvesting systems, EBG components, adaptive antenna systems for DOA estimation and interference cancellations, and radar absorber designs. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers. Dr Abdalla is currently an IEEE Senior Member, URSI Senior Member, and a Member of the IEEE and the European Microwave Association EuMA. He is an editor member and reviewer in many electromagnetic journals such as IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, IEEE Transaction in Magnetics, Progress in Electromagnetic Research, European Physical Journal – Applied Physics, Journal of Electromagnetic Waves (JEMW), Advanced Electromagnetic, and International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies. Dr Mahmoud was the recipient of Egyptian encouragement state prize for engineering sciences in 2014. In 2019, he was the recipient of Egyptian El-sherouq innovation award in electronic engineering. He was awarded the top 1% Publon worldwide reviewer award for 2018 and 2019. In 2020, he was named in the top 2% scientists in “A standardized citation metrics author database annotated for scientific field”/Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators. Email: [email protected]