Researchers quantify biomolecules with 3.6% error on a chip

Researchers have created a terahertz metasensor on a 4 mm x 8 mm chip capable of identifying and quantifying mixtures of biomolecules with a maximum error below 3.6%. The device integrates terahertz generation, molecular interaction, and signal detection onto a single, self-supporting 20 μm-thick lithium niobate wafer. This design achieves a five-order-of-magnitude reduction in the size of the terahertz functional module relative to conventional terahertz time-domain spectroscopy systems, offering a robust and scalable platform for portable quantitative multi-component biomolecular analysis. The work advances terahertz fingerprint sensing by enabling both identification and quantification of multiple biomolecules simultaneously. The design achieves 6% precision, a level previously…