Development of a Miniaturized Liquid Core Waveguide System With Nanoporous Dielectric Cladding—A Potential Biosensing Platform

We present a high-throughput optofluidic light waveguide system consisting of etched microchannels in silicon using water as the core and an ultra low refractive index nanoporous dielectric (ND) as the cladding organosilicate nanoparticulate films with refractive index of 1.16 have been used as the cladding layer. Although NDs offers many advantages over Teflon AF for use as the cladding layer, integration of these coatings to the waveguide design is not trivial. In this paper, we address the various integration issues of the NDs to the liquid core waveguide architecture followed by testing of these waveguides for their light guiding capability. Compared to uncoated channels, ND clad channels offer a high light guiding efficiency. In addition, the high surface areas associated with them could be potentially used to immobilize higher density of sensor probes implying a great potential for biosensor applications in an integrated system.