▎ 摘　　要

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to contribute an analytical and numerical study of a new type of nanoshell particles operating in the visible regime. Design/methodology/approach - The structure consists of a core/shell particle, arranged in a planar array configuration, with a polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA)-graphene core and gold thin shell. Findings - By exploiting the proposed analytical model the design of a metamaterial-based sensor, operating in the optical frequency range, for the detection of tissue diseases is shown. Originality/value - Full-wave simulations confirm the capability of the proposed sensor to identify different compounds by refractive index measurement.