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Review
. 2023 Jul 19;34(40):10.1088/1361-6528/ace117.
doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/ace117.

Dielectric metasurfaces for next-generation optical biosensing: a comparison with plasmonic sensing

Taerin Chung  1   2 , Hao Wang  1   2 , Haogang Cai  1   2   3
Affiliations
Review

Dielectric metasurfaces for next-generation optical biosensing: a comparison with plasmonic sensing

Taerin Chung et al. Nanotechnology. .

Abstract

In the past decades, nanophotonic biosensors have been extended from the extensively studied plasmonic platforms to dielectric metasurfaces. Instead of plasmonic resonance, dielectric metasurfaces are based on Mie resonance, and provide comparable sensitivity with superior resonance bandwidth, Q factor, and figure-of-merit. Although the plasmonic photothermal effect is beneficial in many biomedical applications, it is a fundamental limitation for biosensing. Dielectric metasurfaces solve the ohmic loss and heating problems, providing better repeatability, stability, and biocompatibility. We review the high-Q resonances based on various physical phenomena tailored by meta-atom geometric designs, and compare dielectric and plasmonic metasurfaces in refractometric, surface-enhanced, and chiral sensing for various biomedical and diagnostic applications. Departing from conventional spectral shift measurement using spectrometers, imaging-based and spectrometer-less biosensing are highlighted, including single-wavelength refractometric barcoding, surface-enhanced molecular fingerprinting, and integrated visual reporting. These unique modalities enabled by dielectric metasurfaces point to two important research directions. On the one hand, hyperspectral imaging provides massive information for smart data processing, which not only achieve better biomolecular sensing performance than conventional ensemble averaging, but also enable real-time monitoring of cellular or microbial behaviour in physiological conditions. On the other hand, a single metasurface can integrate both functions of sensing and optical output engineering, using single-wavelength or broadband light sources, which provides simple, fast, compact, and cost-effective solutions. Finally, we provide perspectives in future development on metasurface nanofabrication, functionalization, material, configuration, and integration, towards next-generation optical biosensing for ultra-sensitive, portable/wearable, lab-on-a-chip, point-of-care, multiplexed, and scalable applications.

Keywords: Mie resonance; biosensing; bound states in the continuum; dielectric metasurface; nanophotonics; plasmonics; point-of-care.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Numerical studies on dielectric (Si) vs. plasmonic (Au) nanodisc metasurfaces. Refractive index of (a) Si (Sik et.al.) and (b) Au (Johnson and Christy). Transmission spectra dependence on nanodisc radius and surrounding medium refractive index for (c) Si and (d) Au metasurfaces. (e) Schematic diagram of the 3D FDTD model (a unit nanodisc with periodic boundary conditions, incident light along z-axis and polarization in y-axis), Si nanodisc x-y cross-sectional electric field and magnetic field intensity distribution at resonance wavelengths.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Metasurface with various geometries summarized in a wavelength-sensitivity coordinate plane, comparing Si vs. Au. The coordinates represent (wavelength (nm), sensitivity (nm/RIU), FOM (RIU−1)), Italic fonts indicate approximate estimations based on the data in literature. Nanodisc array: Si [28] John Wiley & Sons. © 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co.; vs. Au, reproduced from [24], CC BY 3.0 with permission from the Royal Society of Chemistry. Nanohole array: Si, reproduced from [36], CC BY 4.0; vs. Au, reprinted with permission from [37], Copyright (2015) American Chemical Society. Si EIT, reprinted by permission from [38], Springer Nature, Copyright (2014); vs. Au EIR, reprinted with permission from [39], Copyright (2010) American Chemical Society. Si nanopost with GRM, reprinted from [40], © 2018 Elsevier B.V.; vs. Au nanoplillar with nanogap, reprinted with permission from [41], Copyright (2011) American Chemical Society. Si BIC groups: nanobar zigzag array, reprinted by permission from [43], Springer Nature, Copyright (2019); nanodisc array with ellipticity asymmetry, reproduced from [44], CC BY 4.0; Si nanocrescent array [46], CC BY with the permission from John Wiley & Sons © 2021 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co.; vs. Au nanocrescent array, reprinted with permission from [45], Copyright (2010) American Chemical Society.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Metasurface sensing mechanisms. I. SEF/SERS. (a) Si nanopost arrays (a1) with simulated EM-field intensities (a2) for SEF detection of protein biomarkers, reproduced from [60] CC BYNC-ND. (b) Si3N4 nanohole arrays (b1) for both SEF (b2, rhodamine-6G) and SERS (b3, crystal violet molecules), reprinted with permission from [61], Copyright (2018) American Chemical Society. (c) Local temperature as a function of laser intensity: Si (c1) vs. Au (c2) dimers, reproduced from [63], CC BY 4.0. (d) Si dimers for both SEF (d1) and SERS (d2) detection of β-carotenal, reprinted with permission from [64], Copyright (2018) American Chemical Society. (e) Self assembled Au nanoparticle dimers for SEF of Alexa Fluor 647, reprinted with permission from [65], Copyright (2015) American Chemical Society. (f) Au nanohole and nanodisc array for SERS detection of 4-mercaptopyridine (4-MP), reprinted with permission from [62], Copyright (2008) American Chemical Society. II. SEIRA. (g) BIC pixelated metasurface (g1) for molecular fingerprinting (g2, protein A/G physisorption) [71], reprinted with permission from AAAS. (h) AFR based on BIC metasurface (h1) for molecular fingerprinting (h2, human ODAM), reproduced from [47], CC BY-NC 4.0. (i) Au multiband IR metasurface for membrane monitoring, reproduced from [69], CC BY 4.0, (j) Tunable graphenemetallic hybrid metasurface for IgG detection reprinted with permission from [70], Copyright (2019) American Chemical Society. III. Chiral sensing. (k) Si metasurface for CD enhancement, reprinted with permission from [72], Copyright (2018) American Chemical Society. (l) TiO2 chiral metasurface, reproduced from [75], CC BY 4.0. (m) Hybrid metallic-dielectric metasurface for CD enhancement, reprinted with permission from [78] https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsphotonics.1c00311 (further permission should be directed to the ACS). (n) Hybrid 3D chiral metamaterial for TDP-43 detection, reprinted with permission from [79], Copyright (2021) American Chemical Society.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Metasurface optical readouts. I. Comparison between the intensity changes and spectral shifts readouts for (a) dielectric Si nanodisc arrays, reprinted with permission from [21], Copyright (2019) American Chemical Society; and (b) plasmonic Au nanorod arrays, reprinted with permission from [80] Copyright (2015) American Chemical Society. II. Imaging-based readout. (c) Si gradient metasurface of chirped nanohole array, reproduced from [36], CC BY 4.0. (d) Au gradient metasurfaces made by the interference lithography [82], CC BY with the permission from John Wiley & Sons © 2021 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. (e) Algorithm-aided refractometric barcoding based on Si BIC pixelated metasurfaces, reprinted by permission from [43], Springer Nature, Copyright (2019). III. Holographic readout. (f) Polarization-switchable dielectric meta-holograms as gas sensors, reproduced from [84], CC BY-NC 4.0. Medium-switchable meta-holograms with potentials in refractometric sensing applications, comparing (g) dielectric (TiO2), reproduced from [85], Copyright (2021) American Chemical Society; vs. (h) plasmonic (Au) [86], CC BY with the permission from John Wiley & Sons © 2021 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co.
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