title: Analysis of ultra-high sensitivity configuration in chip-integrated photonic crystal microcavity bio-sensors.
abstract: We analyze the contributions of quality factor, fill fraction, and group index of chip-integrated resonance microcavity devices, to the detection limit for bulk chemical sensing and the minimum detectable biomolecule concentration in biosensing. We analyze the contributions from analyte absorbance, as well as from temperature and spectral noise. Slow light in two-dimensional photonic crystals provide opportunities for significant reduction of the detection limit below 1 × 10-7RIU (refractive index unit) which can enable highly sensitive sensors in diverse application areas. We demonstrate experimentally detected concentration of 1 fM (67 fg/ml) for the binding between biotin and avidin, the lowest reported till date.
authors.affiliation: Omega Optics, Inc., Austin, Texas 78757, USA.
authors.forename: Swapnajit
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chakravarty
authors.affiliation: Omega Optics, Inc., Austin, Texas 78757, USA.
authors.forename: Amir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hosseini
authors.affiliation: Omega Optics, Inc., Austin, Texas 78757, USA.
authors.forename: Xiaochuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78758, USA.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78758, USA.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.affiliation: Omega Optics, Inc., Austin, Texas 78757, USA ; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78758, USA.
authors.forename: Ray T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Chen