A proposal of 3D sensor for rapid detection of breast tumour cell using photonic structure

Abstract

The present research proposes a method that can identify tumour cells present in the human breast with the help of a plasmon-based three-dimensional (3D) photonic structure. The mechanism of detection of cells (tumour or normal) is realised through the analysis of the photonic bandgap of the proposed copper-based plasmonic structure. Moreover, the plane-wave expansion technique is applied to find the solution of the Helmholtz equation that determines the band structure. In this process, three signals with frequencies of 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 THz are allowed to impinge on the structure to obtain the required results. The detection of cells that may be normal or suffering from tumour is confirmed by the reflected signal from the 3D photonic structure. More precisely, the bandgap analysis suggests that the cell is cancerous (suffering from tumour) if the reflected signal falls within the blue regime. In contrast, if the signal received finds a place within the violet regime of the spectrum, then this is an indication of a normal cell.