Surface Plasmon Resonance Biosensor with High Sensitivity for Detecting SARS-CoV-2

Abstract

This paper presents a novel surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor based on Kretchmann configuration for detection of SARS-CoV-2. It combines Barium titanate (BaTiO 3 ) dielectric material on top of metal, also 2D material Tungsten Disulfide (WS 2 ) used alongside the traditional prism/metal/sensing layer setup. Sensitivity is enhanced by using BaTiO 3 on silver (Ag) and WS2 on BaTiO3. The integration of these emerging materials into conventional sensor structures has been thoroughly examined to optimize sensor performance. An analysis of key performance parameters has been conducted using the transfer matrix method (TMM) and Fresnel equations, including sensitivity, full width at half-maxima (FWHM), and figure of merit (FOM). The proposed sensor demonstrates an exceptional angular sensitivity of 450°/RIU, with a 3.5° FWHM and a 128.57/RIU FoM. Optimal sensitivity is achieved with a configuration comprising 1 layer of WS2 in addition to the metal layer. Our proposed SPR sensor shows more sensitivity for detecting SARS-CoV-2 than other proposed SPR sensors in literature. We also analyzed the electric field of the proposed biosensor with Finite Element Method based software and showed its future research aspect. SARS-CoV-2 has been successfully detected in patient samples due to the sensor's increased sensitivity at early stage of this disease.