AUTHOR=Elrashidi Ali , Traversa Enrico , Elzein Basma 

TITLE=Highly sensitive ultra-thin optical CO2 gas sensors using nanowall honeycomb structure and plasmonic nanoparticles

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Energy Research

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/energy-research/articles/10.3389/fenrg.2022.909950

DOI=10.3389/fenrg.2022.909950

ISSN=2296-598X

ABSTRACT=Carbon dioxide highly sensitive optical sensor using plasmonic nanoparticles distributed uniformly on nanowall honeycomb structure is presented in this work. The zinc oxide (ZnO) honeycomb nanowall structure is grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method. Moreover, the performance of the fabricated structure as a gas nanosensor is simulated using finite difference time domain (FDTD) method in the visible and near-infrared regions. A graphene layer is mounted on a top of the nanowall and then plasmonic nanoparticles are distributed on the nanowall sides. Furthermore, the effect of gas concentration on the pressure and consequently on the dielectric constant of the gas are also illustrated in this paper.  Red-shift in the absorption has been noticed with different refractive index and intensity sensitivities. The obtained refractive index sensitivity of the proposed nano optical sensor is 874 nm/RIU and the intensity sensitivity is 5174 RIU-1 with figure of merit 12.5 and quality factor (Q-factor) of 281 at carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration 5500 ppm. Finally, the absorbed power of the incident light is calculated using different polarization angle, from 10o to 80o with a step10o.