Abstract
In this work three Fabry-Perot (FP) resonant cavities based on vertical silicon/air one-dimensional photonic crystals (1DPhCs) featuring different architectures and fluidic functionalities are designed, and the role of key design parameters on their ideal biosensing performance, i.e. surface sensitivity, limit of detection, range of linearity, is investigated. Numerical calculations of the transmission spectra of the 1DPhC FP resonant cavities using the Transfer Matrix Method (TMM), versus thickness of a biolayer simulating biomolecules (e.g. proteins) adsorbed on the 1DPhC FP cavity surfaces, show that biosensors with surface sensitivity up to 300 pm/nm, limit of detection down to 0.07 nm, and high linearity over the range 0-50 nm of biolayer thickness can be achieved.
Highlights
There has been an increased interest in employing optical resonant cavities for the development of integrated label-free biosensors able to detect target molecules of clinical relevance (e.g. DNA, proteins, etc.) with high-sensitivity and low-limit of detection, without the use of fluorescent labels
The numerical analysis of the ideal performance of biosensors based on three different 1DPhC FP resonant cavities clearly highlights that both architecture and fluidic functionality play a major role on chief sensing parameters, such as surface sensitivity, limit of detection, quality factor, and range of linearity
For a chosen architecture with a given fluidic functionality, sensitivity and limit of detection mainly depends on the cavityorder K and on the number of 1DPhC cells N, respectively
Summary
There has been an increased interest in employing optical resonant cavities for the development of integrated label-free biosensors able to detect target molecules of clinical relevance (e.g. DNA, proteins, etc.) with high-sensitivity and low-limit of detection, without the use of fluorescent labels. Among PhCs, vertical silicon/air 1DPhCs have been demonstrated to be very appealing for biosensing applications in the near- and mid-infrared range, where both silicon and biological matter absorption is negligible [14,15] They inherently feature independent fluidic (through the air-gaps) and optical (perpendicularly to the air-gaps) paths that enable the realization of integrated “flow-through” biosensors with higher sensitivity and lower limit of detection with respect to standard “flow-over” approaches, on the one hand, as well as the integration of biosensors together with on-chip microfluidic and optical networks for the realization of miniaturized biosensing platforms, on the other hand [16]. Three vertical silicon/air 1DPhC FP resonant cavities with different architectures and fluidic functionalities are designed, and the role of key design parameters, i.e. Fabry-Perot cavity order and 1DPhC micromirror reflectivity, on their biosensing performance, i.e. surface sensitivity (S), limit of detection (LoD), range of linearity (L), is analyzed by numerical simulation.
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