Photonic Spin Hall Effect as a Highly Sensitive Refractive Index Sensing Platform for Glucose

Abstract

This study presents an innovative refractive index (RI) sensor that measures glucose concentration by utilizing the photonic spin Hall effect (SHE) in a resonant optical tunneling effect (ROTE) structure. The ROTE structure consists of three InP layers with the high RI and two analyte layers (with a high‐low‐high‐low‐high RI distribution), in which glucose solution samples with the low RI are injected. By subjecting the InP layers to external bias‐assisted light, the photonic SHE can be flexibly manipulated, enabling the modulation of the sensing performance accordingly. It is found that the transverse shift of photonic SHE presents a large variation in response to the tiny change in glucose concentrations. By optimizing the parameters (i.e., intensity or wavelength) of bias light, the sensitivity of this sensor can reach as high as 735.7 µm RIU−1. Compared to traditional glucose sensors, this original work implements the novel photonic SHE with the superior sensing performance. Therefore, the proposed design shows promising potential for biomedical applications, such as medical diagnoses and drug discovery.