In this paper, we demonstrated the ability of a plasmonic metasensor to detect ultra-low refractive index changes (in the order of ∆n = 10-10 RIU), using an innovative phase-change material, vanadium dioxide (VO2), as the sensing layer. Different from current cumbersome plasmonic biosensing setups based on optical-phase-singularity measurement, our phase signal detection is based on the direct measurement of the phase-related lateral position shift (Goos-Hänchen) at the sensing interface. The high sensitivity (1.393 × 108 μm/RIU for ∆n = 10-10 RIU), based on the Goos-Hänchen lateral shift of the reflected wave, becomes significant when the sensor is excited at resonance, due to the near-zero reflectivity dip, which corresponds to the absolute dark point (lower than 10-6). GH shifts in the order of 2.997 × 103 μm were obtained using the optimal metasurface configuration. The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) curves (reflectivity, phase, GH) and electromagnetic simulations were derived using the MATLAB programming algorithm (by the transfer matrix method) and Comsol modeling (by finite element analysis), respectively. These results will provide a feasible way for the detection of cancer biomarkers.
Keywords: Goos–Hänchen sensitivity; Goos–Hänchen shift; cancer biomarkers; phase detection; phase-change material; surface plasmons; vanadium dioxide.