Pressure and temperature-tunable photonic crystal biosensor for early detection of CHIKV-infected cells

Abstract In this work, using the transfer matrix method, we calculated the transmittance spectrum of an optical biosensor based on a defective one-dimensional photonic crystal for detecting cells infected with the Chikungunya virus. The heterostructure consists of alternating layers of GaAs and the high-critical-temperature superconductor Hg-1223, where the crystal’s periodicity is disrupted by the insertion of a cavity that acts as a sensing layer. Given that the cavity is infiltrated with plasma, platelets, and uric acid in both normal and infected states, we measured the transmittance spectrum under controlled variations in hydrostatic pressure and temperature. The results show the presence of a confined mode within the photonic band gap, whose position shifts with increasing applied pressure, enabling us to distinguish between healthy and infected cells. A maximum quality factor of 3.06 × 10 3 is reported for plasma at 10 GPa, and the confined energy decreases as the temperature is raised to 120 K. Additionally, we found that the biosensor is sensitive to increases in pressure or temperature across all cell types.