Design of Highly Selective Metamaterials for Sensing Platforms

This paper presents a methodology to construct novel label-free sensing platforms using carefully engineered materials (metamaterials) that have dimensions considerably smaller than the operating wavelength, λ. This paper demonstrates that highly selective sensing platforms can be achieved by using metamaterials consisting of periodic arrays of capacitive and inductive elements. Specifically, this paper gives the design of the following four basic sensing parameters of sensing platforms: 1) resonant frequency ω₀; 2) resonant frequency shift Δω₀; 3) bandwidth B; and 4) transmission ratio T. Using this approach, the bandwidth B and resonant frequency ω₀ can easily be modulated by using different combination sets of metallic patch elements and metallic wire elements. Equivalent circuit analysis and numerical methods have been applied to determine the basic sensing design rules for constructing periodic arrays of capacitive and inductive elements, and the efficiency of the obtained label-free sensing architectures has been evaluated. The overall contribution of this paper is to develop a methodology for designing highly selective biosensors by optimizing the dimensions of underlying circuit at the subwavelength scale.