A High-Performance SPR Biosensor for Female Reproductive Hormone Detection

In this work, a plasmonic sensor using copper (Cu) with palladium (Pd) and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) (structure: SF11/Cu/Pd/h-BN/SM) based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) for the detection of female reproductive hormones (progesterone and estradiol). A comparative study is performed between various layers of Cu and Cu/h-BN, which obtained performance parameters for the proposed structure. The reproductive hormones in females have a long refractive index (RI) between 1.3333 and 1.59606. The proposed sensor for progesterone and estradiol of reproductive hormones in females attains the maximal sensitivity of 97.24°/RIU and 79.4°/RIU. After an analysis, the proposed sensor is found to have a figure of merit (FoM) of 192.9/RIU and 189.29/RIU for the same analyte. Moreover, the penetration depth (PD) of 142.55nm for progesterone was measured. Using Cu/Pd/h-BN/SM as a new type of supporting material with enhanced biosensing activity for the detection of long-range RI of sensing medium (SM), we propose a plasmonic sensor with potential applications.