Sensitivity optimization of cells immersed in a cavity surrounded by thin graphene layers in one-dimensional photonic crystals

In this work, we used the transfer matrix method to calculate the transmittance spectrum for a defective one-dimensional photonic crystal with a cavity surrounded by graphene sheets into which Normal, Jurkat, HeLa, PC-12, MDA-MB-231, and MCF-7 cells are infiltrated. In the transmittance spectrum, the resonance modes for each cell were observed within the photonic gap. To optimize sensitivity, we modified the fill factor and cavity thickness parameters. As the fill factor increased, the position of the resonance modes moved toward longer wavelengths while their bandwidth decreased. In addition, a decrease in transmittance was observed, with a greater separation of the position of cancer cell resonance modes with respect to normal cells, thus increasing sensitivity up to 456 nm/RIU. Finally, we calculated the transmittance spectrum by increasing the thickness of the cavity while maintaining the fill factor constant at 0.4, obtaining a higher sensitivity of 560 nm/RIU.