Single-Device VOC Fingerprinting via Polarization-Selective Anisotropic BeS-Clad Silicon Microring Resonator

TL;DR

This paper introduces a polarization-selective silicon microring resonator with anisotropic BeS cladding for detecting breath biomarkers, enabling dual-polarization optical fingerprints without sensor arrays.

Contribution

The work demonstrates a novel single-device approach utilizing anisotropic cladding to distinguish multiple biomarkers via dual-polarization sensing.

Findings

Achieved high quality factors of 4520 (TE) and 3151 (TM).

Detected biomarkers with shifts up to 0.426 nm and sensitivities of 6.5 nm/RIU.

Separated interferents like CO2 and H2O from target biomarkers.

Abstract

A silicon microring resonator with an anisotropic beryllium sulfide (BeS) cladding is proposed for polarization-selective detection of exhaled-breath volatile organic compound biomarkers. The anisotropic dielectric response of BeS enables the transverse-electric (TE) and transverse-magnetic (TM) modes to probe orthogonal components of the cladding permittivity tensor, generating two independent optical observables from a single device. Five clinically relevant biomarkers are investigated: acetone, isoprene, 4-hydroxyhexenal, 2-propenal, and benzene. First-principles optical constants are incorporated into three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain simulations to evaluate the sensing response. The TE mode exhibits a uniform resonance shift of 0.263 nm across all analytes and serves as a concentration reference channel, while the TM mode produces analyte-specific shifts ranging from 0.200 to 0.426 nm. A unique TM amplitude inversion is observed for benzene, enabling additional discrimination. The resulting dual-polarization response forms a two-dimensional optical fingerprint that distinguishes all five biomarkers without requiring a sensor array or multiple functionalized resonators. The device achieves quality factors of 4520 and 3151 for the TE and TM modes, respectively, with sensitivities up to 6.5 nm/RIU, figures of merit up to 14.9 RIU^-1, and detection limits as low as 1.5 mRIU. Cross-sensitivity analysis further shows that CO2 and H2O produce negative TM resonance shifts, separating interferents from target biomarkers in the fingerprint plane. The proposed platform demonstrates a compact route toward array-free photonic breath analysis using intrinsic cladding anisotropy.