Design and optimization of a terahertz photonic crystal fiber based biosensor to detect malaria disease

Abstract

This study introduces a dual core photonic crystal fiber (DC-PCF) based biosensing approach for early detection of malaria in individuals by monitoring the variations in the red blood cells (RBCs). The proposed DC-PCF comprises four layers of a hexagonal lattice with circular air holes. In the proposed DC-PCF, we have used a central elliptical hole to infiltrate RBCs samples. The proposed study helps to detect various stages of malaria, such as infected RBCs, including the Ring stage, Trophozoite stage, and Schizont stage, by analyzing the changes in the peak wavelength. The proposed refractive index (RI) based sensor is designed to operate within an RI range of 1.33 to 1.41, enabling the detection of malaria. The numerical analysis indicate that our biosensor demonstrates significant sensitivity across different stages, such as 12,00000 nm/RIU for the ring stage, 11,15,263.15 nm/RIU for the trophozoite stage, and 11,13,793.10 nm/RIU for the schizont stage under x-polarization. Similarly, under y-polarization, the sensitivity is observed to be 10,50,000 nm/RIU for the ring stage, 10,54,736.84 nm/RIU for the trophozoite stage, and 10,32,758.62 nm/RIU for the schizont stage. The proposed DC-PCF-based biosensor is highly suitable for biological analysis and early malaria detection because it has a low detection limit and superior sensing performance.