Lee, Dong-Kyu Kang, Ji-Hun Lee, Jun-Seok Kim, Hyo-Seok Kim, Chulki Kim, Jae Hun Lee, Taikjin Son, Joo-Hiuk Park, Q-Han Seo, Minah 2024-01-20T06:01:04Z 2024-01-20T06:01:04Z 2021-09-05 2015-10-23 2045-2322 https://pubs.kist.re.kr/handle/201004/124872 Molecular recognition and discrimination of carbohydrates are important because carbohydrates perform essential roles in most living organisms for energy metabolism and cell-to-cell communication. Nevertheless, it is difficult to identify or distinguish various carbohydrate molecules owing to the lack of a significant distinction in the physical or chemical characteristics. Although there has been considerable effort to develop a sensing platform for individual carbohydrates selectively using chemical receptors or an ensemble array, their detection and discrimination limits have been as high in the millimolar concentration range. Here we show a highly sensitive and selective detection method for the discrimination of carbohydrate molecules using nano-slot-antenna array-based sensing chips which operate in the terahertz (THz) frequency range (0.5-2.5 THz). This THz metamaterial sensing tool recognizes various types of carbohydrate molecules over a wide range of molecular concentrations. Strongly localized and enhanced terahertz transmission by nano-antennas can effectively increase the molecular absorption cross sections, thereby enabling the detection of these molecules even at low concentrations. We verified the performance of nano-antenna sensing chip by both THz spectra and images of transmittance. Screening and identification of various carbohydrates can be applied to test even real market beverages with a high sensitivity and selectivity. English NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP SPECTROSCOPY RESONANCES Highly sensitive and selective sugar detection by terahertz nano-antennas Article 10.1038/srep15459 1 SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, v.5 SCIENTIFIC REPORTS 5 scie scopus 000363302200001 2-s2.0-84945259199 Multidisciplinary Sciences Science & Technology - Other Topics Article SPECTROSCOPY RESONANCES