Intelligent tunable optical sensing through graphene-based multi-band terahertz absorber for cancer cell detection

Early and accurate detection of cancer remains a central challenge in biomedical diagnostics. This study presents a graphene-based multi-band terahertz (THz) metamaterial absorber (MMA) analyzed through numerical modeling as a label-free optical biosensor for distinguishing cancerous from healthy cells via refractive-index variations. The main contribution of this work is the development of an integrated intelligent design framework that combines finite-element electromagnetic simulation, response surface methodology, surrogate regression modeling, and multi-objective optimization to systematically establish quantitative relationships between absorber geometry and optical sensing performance. This integration links geometrical parameters to optical behavior, enabling improved absorbance and resonance control essential for detecting cancer-related optical changes. Two cancer models blood cancer and breast cancer were analyzed based on their distinct refractive indices and dielectric responses, revealing measurable frequency shifts in the THz regime. The results reveal that at low 𝑟 𝑖 𝑛 𝑛 values, decreasing α enhances the maximum absorbance by more than 34% over the investigated range of tilting angles, with the magnitude of this enhancement depending on the specific value of θ. The utilized algorithms were compared, yielding sensitivity values of 7.14 THz/Refractive Index Unit (RIU) for blood cancer and 7.85 THz/RIU for breast cancer detection. The proposed framework establishes a pathway for computational optical sensing in cancer, bridging numerical modeling and intelligent metamaterial design for next-generation diagnostic platforms.