Optical intensity-based long-period fiber grating biosensors and biomedical applications [Life Sciences]

In this article, we present a novel long-period fiber grating (LPFG) biosensor that can employ the simple and cost-effective optical intensity-based signal process method instead of the complex and expensive optical spectrum-based method. The ionic self-assembled multilayers (ISAM) technique is utilized to immobilize a thin layer of biorecognition film on the surface of a specially designed turnaround-point (TAP) LPFG. The new sensor maintains the optical resonant feature to achieve the desired high sensitivity but can be interrogated using optical intensity-based signal-processing. The new TAP-LPFG biosensor may be used for real-time DNA forensic analysis.