Design of high-performance Au-Ag-dielectric-graphene based surface plasmon resonance biosensors using genetic algorithm

In this paper, we presented a design method of a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor with high performance using a genetic algorithm (GA). The constraint conditions of the sensitivity and the reflectivity at the resonance angle were used in the merit function (MF) of GA to achieve simultaneous optimization of the sensitivity and the resolution. By using the proposed method, we designed an Au-Ag-TiO2-graphene based SPR biosensor at first and compared its performance with a traditional Au-graphene based SPR biosensor. The resolution of the designed biosensor was nearly three times that of the traditional one on the premise of the same sensitivity. In addition, a series of SPR biosensors with sensitivities ranging from 50 to 180 degrees/RIU and improved resolutions was designed by using different target sensitivities in MF. A comparison of the designed biosensors with the traditional Au-graphene SPR biosensor was also done, and the biosensors with higher sensitivity and meanwhile higher resolution than the traditional one were demonstrated to be existed. Lastly, the influences of target reflectivity at the resonance angle and the prism on the design of the Au-Ag-TiO2-graphene based SPR biosensor were investigated. It is believed that the proposed design method based on the genetic algorithm could be applied to optimize the performances of a SPR biosensor with an arbitrary multilayer structure. Published under license by AIP Publishing.