Review of design principles of 2D photonic crystal microcavity biosensors in silicon and their applications

doi:10.1007/s12200-016-0631-2

Front. Optoelectron.

2016, Vol. 9

Issue (2) : 206-224 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12200-016-0631-2

REVIEW ARTICLE

Review of design principles of 2D photonic crystal microcavity biosensors in silicon and their applications

Swapnajit CHAKRAVARTY^1,^*(

),Xiangning CHEN^2,³,Naimei TANG²,Wei-Cheng LAI²,Yi ZOU²,Hai YAN²(

),Ray T. CHEN^1,^2,^*

1. Omega Optics Inc., Austin, TX, 78757, USA
2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA
3. School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China

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Abstract

In this paper, we reviewed the design principles of two-dimensional (2D) silicon photonic crystal microcavity (PCM) biosensors coupled to photonic crystal waveguides (PCWs). Microcavity radiation loss is controlled by engineered the cavity mode volume. Coupling loss into the waveguide is controlled by adjusting the position of the microcavity from the waveguide. We also investigated the dependence of analyte overlap integral (also called fill fraction) of the resonant mode as well as the effect of group index of the coupling waveguide at the resonant wavelength of the microcavity. In addition to the cavity properties, absorbance of the sensing medium or analyte together with the affinity constant of the probe and target biomarkers involved in the biochemical reaction also limits the minimum detection limits. We summarized our results in applications in cancer biomarker detection, heavy metal sensing and therapeutic drug monitoring.

Keywords photonic crystal (PC) sensor biosensor slow light photonic crystal microcavity (PCM) photonic crystal waveguide (PCW) high sensitivity high specificity photonic integrated circuits (PICs) nanophotonics

Corresponding Author(s): Swapnajit CHAKRAVARTY,Ray T. CHEN

Just Accepted Date: 16 March 2016 Online First Date: 29 March 2016 Issue Date: 05 April 2016

Cite this article:

Swapnajit CHAKRAVARTY,Xiangning CHEN,Naimei TANG, et al. Review of design principles of 2D photonic crystal microcavity biosensors in silicon and their applications[J]. Front. Optoelectron., 2016, 9(2): 206-224.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/foe/EN/10.1007/s12200-016-0631-2
https://academic.hep.com.cn/foe/EN/Y2016/V9/I2/206

Fig.1 (a) Device schematic; (b) ink-jet printed biomolecules on PC devices showing spacing between printed spots (scale bar is 10 mm); (c) dispersion diagram of W1 PCW in water. The W1 guided mode is shown together with frequencies of resonant modes for L3, L7 and L13 PCMs by dashed lines. Respective mode profiles are shown in insets

Fig.2 Experimental W1 PCW transmission spectrum in water with coupled (a) L3, (b) L7 and (c) L13 microcavities. Experimental spectra showing shift of resonance mode closest to the band edge in (a), (b) and (c) in (d), (e) and (f) respectively in water (black) versus IPA (blue). Inset (e) magnifies the wavelength range

Fig.3 Plots showing trends in L3, L7 and L13 PCMs for resonant mode (a) quality factor Q in water (open circle), (b) quality factor Q in IPA (open square), (c) approximate mode offset from the transmission band edge (filled square, left offset axis) and (d) wavelength shift from water to IPA (filled triangle, left axis)

Fig.4 (a) Schematic of PCM device; (b) dispersion diagram of W1 PCW inwater. The W1 guided mode is shown together with frequencies of resonant modes for L13 and L21 PCMs by black and red dashed lines respectively. The mode profiles are shown in insets

Fig.5 Q-factors (black squares) and bulk sensitivity (blue triangles) variation of L21 microcavity side coupled to W1 PCW in water versus microcavity location change (L21_2 represents L21 microcavity 2 rows away from the PCW)

Fig.6 (a) 2D FDTD simulated fill fraction/field overlap computed for different PCMs with R = 0.275a (filled circles), R = 0.35a (open circles) and ring resonator (open square). Ring TM value is taken from Ref. [9] for a ring resonator with diameter 30 mm and width 500 nm; (b) SEM image of L13 PC microcavity with defect holes; (c) mode profile of the confined defect mode in (b)

Fig.7 (a) Transmission spectra for PCWs in water with R_D = 0.6R; (b) bulk sensitivity computed from experimentally observed resonance wavelength shift from water to glycerol for different R_D

Fig.8 Bio sensing spectral shifts (dl) in L13, L21, L55 and L13 defect holed PCMs. 1 M=1 mol/L [52]

Fig.9 Experimental transmission spectrum, showing the resonance modes and mode profiles in the insets

Fig.10 (a) Dispersion diagram in water of the W1 PCW with the coupled L13 PCM mode frequencies A, B, C shown in black, red, blue dotted lines respectively. Simulated group index of the W1 PCW is shown on the right axis; (b) sensitivity values and Q-factors in water of resonance modes A, B and C are shown for W1 as filled circles and filled squares respectively, for W1.025 as open circles and open squares and for W1.05 as crossed circle and crossed squares respectively

Fig.11 Wavelength shift of each resonance modes at different concentration. Solid square dots denote the resonance mode A. Solid circle dots denote mode B, and the solid triangle dots are mode C

Tab.1 Target and probe protein conjugates

Fig.12 Resonance wavelength shift of the L13 PCM as a function of concentration for various probe-target conjugates in Table 1 as a function of K_d. Filled circles l: binding of goat anti-rabbit IgG to rabbit anti-goat IgG (K_d ~10^-⁶ mol/L); open circles ○: binding of rat anti-human to human IL-10 (K_d ~10^-¹⁰ mol/L); open squares □: binding of avidin to biotin (K_d~10^-¹⁵ mol/L)

Fig.13 Chart comparing minimum detection limits of PCM based biosensors versus other label-free optical platforms as a function of sensing area on chip

Fig.14 Schematic of the PC sensor device with input and output strip waveguide, PC tapers, PC guiding region and L3 PCM; (b) dispersion diagrams of W1 (solid), and W1.08 (dash) PCWs in water (n = 1.33) for PC with a = 392.5 nm. The normalized resonance frequency of the coupled PCM at a = 392.5 nm is denoted by D. C, B, and A denote the normalized resonance frequencies of L3 PCMs in PC regions with a = 393.5, 394 and 396 nm respectively cascaded in series with D (a = 392.5 nm). Group index is plotted and its magnitude at the couplingfrequency indicated in respective colors

Fig.15 Scanning electron micrograph of the fabricated device. (a) Full device with 16 arms; (b) each of the 16 arms with 4 cascaded microcavities; (c) PCW adiabatic group index taper achieved by adiabatic width taper of PCW and high group index region; (d) one of the 4 cascaded microcavities shown in (b); (e) close up of the L3 PCM located 2 rows away from a W1 PCW

Fig.16 Normalized transmission spectral of W1 PCW with coupled series-connected L3 PCMs. (a) 2 cavities, (b) 3 cavities and (c) 4 cavities with index taper; (d) 2 cavities, (e) 3 cavities and (f) 4 cavities without index taper. All spectra are measured in water ambient. Resonant peaks are shown by arrows in (a), (b) and (c). In (c), resonant peaks are also labeled as A, B, C and D corresponding to Fig. 1(b). Inset (b) shows magnified linear scale spectrum of resonance peak closest to the bandedge. The dash line shows the full width at half maximum (FWHM)

Fig.17 Output spectra of high density microarray with a total of 64 sensors integrated into 16 arms inside one device. 4 series-connected L3 microcavity are side coupled to PCW on each arm. All spectra are measured in water. 16 arms are made from a two stage cascaded 1 × 4 MMI in Fig. 15(a)

Fig.18 SEM images of (a) L13 and (b) L13 with nanoholes devices and their respective transmission spectra in (c) and (d), from devices fabricated in a commercial foundry

Fig.19 Dense arrays of devices on a chip multiplexed with MMIs

Fig.20 Plot showing the enhanced sensitivity of L13 with nanohole type of PCM versus conventional L13 PCM, with respect to detection of pancreatic cancer biomarkers

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