Optimization and Data-Driven Design of a Highly Sensitive 2-D Photonic Crystal Biosensor for Early Cancer Detection with Resonant Wavelength Shifting

In this article, a 2-D photonic crystal biosensor based on the resonant wavelength shifting scheme is proposed to be applied for the detection of different cancer cells. In this context, we designed and simulated a model of a two-dimensional periodic structure composed of dielectric rods in an air background. The simulation was carried out using the Fullwave and Bandsolve modules of the RSoft software, based on the Finite-Difference Time- Domain (FDTD) and Plane Wave Expansion (PWE) analysis and calculation methods. We improved the biosensor's sensitivity by optimizing the radius, placement, and the number of the nanocavity's sensing rods. Under optimized conditions, the biosensor's sensitivity was measured at 1747 nm per refractive index unit with a detection limit as low as 0.002 refractive index unit, such high sensitivity demonstrates that the proposed structure offers promising applications for compact, high-quality, and highly sensitive label-free optical biosensors.