Exceptional point-based ultrasensitive surface acoustic wave gas sensor

Abstract: Exceptional points (EPs) refer to degeneracies in non-Hermitian systems where two or more eigenvalues and their corresponding eigenvectors coalesce. Recently, there has been growing interest in harnessing EPs to enhance the responsivity of sensors. Significant improvements in the sensitivity of sensors in optics and electronics have been developed. In this work, we present a novel ultrasensitive surface acoustic wave (SAW) gas sensor based on EP. We demonstrate its ability to significantly respond to trace amount of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas by tuning additional loss to approach the EP, thereby enhancing the responsivity compared to the conventional delay line gas sensors. In addition to high sensitivity, our sensor is robust to temperature variation and exclusive to H2S gas. We propose an innovative method for designing a new generation of ultrasensitive gas sensor.