Photonic biosensing through cascade-coupled Su–Schrieffer–Heeger boundary modes

Abstract

We propose a conceptual device for a multiplexed biosensor in a photonic crystal chip based on the Su–Schrieffer–Heeger mechanism. Remarkably, the proposed biosensor can identify three distinct disease markers through a single-shot photon transmission measurement, thanks to the couplings among the three Su–Schrieffer–Heeger boundary modes in the photonic crystal. Our biosensor design is more robust against defects and disorders that are inevitable in real-life device applications than previous designs. Such robustness is invaluable for achieving efficient, reliable, and integrated biosensing based on nanophotonic systems. We further demonstrate that various combinations of disease markers can be recognized via the photon transmission spectrum, thus unveiling a promising route toward high-performance, advanced biosensing for future biomedical technology.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

photonic / biosensing / cascade-coupled / Su–Schrieffer–Heeger / boundary

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Disclosures

The authors declare no conflict of interests.

Data availability

Data underlying the results presented in this paper are not publicly available at this time but may be obtained from the authors upon reasonable request.

Electronic supplementary materials

The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.15302/frontphys.2025.044203.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2022YFA1404400). J.H.J. also thanks the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 12125504 and12074281) and the Priority Academic Program Development (PAPD) of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.

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