Electro-Optical Biosensor Based on Embedded Double-Monolayer of Graphene Capacitor in Polymer Technology

Abstract

In this work, we present an interferometric polymer-based electro-optical device, integrated with an embedded double-monolayer graphene capacitor for biosensing applications. An external voltage across the capacitor applies an electric field to the graphene layers modifying their surface charge density and the Fermi level position in these layers. This in turn changes the electro-optic properties of the graphene layers making absorption in the waveguide tunable with external voltages. Simultaneously, it is possible to appreciate that this phenomenon contributes to the maximization of the light-graphene interaction by evanescent wave in the sensing area. As a result, it is obtained large phase changes at the output of the interferometer, as a function of small variations in the refractive index in the cladding area, which significantly increasing the sensitivity of the device. The optimum interaction length obtained was 1.24 cm considering a cladding refractive index of 1.33. An absorption change of 129 dB/mm was demonstrated. This result combined with the photonic device based on polymer technology may enable a low-cost solution for biosensing applications in Point of Care (PoC) platform.