title: Plastic lab-on-a-chip for fluorescence excitation with integrated organic semiconductor lasers.
abstract: Laser light excitation of fluorescent markers offers highly sensitive and specific analysis for bio-medical or chemical analysis. To profit from these advantages for applications in the field or at the point-of-care, a plastic lab-on-a-chip with integrated organic semiconductor lasers is presented here. First order distributed feedback lasers based on the organic semiconductor tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq3) doped with the laser dye 4-dicyanomethylene-2-methyl-6-(p-dimethylaminostyril)-4H-pyrane (DCM), deep ultraviolet induced waveguides, and a nanostructured microfluidic channel are integrated into a poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) substrate. A simple and parallel fabrication process is used comprising thermal imprint, DUV exposure, evaporation of the laser material, and sealing by thermal bonding. The excitation of two fluorescent marker model systems including labeled antibodies with light emitted by integrated lasers is demonstrated.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microstructure Technology (IMT), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany. christoph.vannahme@kit.edu
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vannahme
authors.forename: Sönke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Klinkhammer
authors.forename: Uli
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Lemmer
authors.forename: Timo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mappes
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D054023:Lasers, Semiconductor; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000737:chemistry*; D010969:Plastics / Q000737:chemistry; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence / Q000295:instrumentation*; D018511:Systems Integration
chemical_list: D009930:Organic Chemicals; D010969:Plastics