Surface Plasmon Interferometer in Silicon-on-Insulator: Novel Concept for an Integrated Biosensor

Author

Debackere, P. ; Scheerlinck, S. ; Bienstman, P. ; Baets, R.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Inf. Technol., Ghent Univ.

fYear

2006

fDate

13-15 Sept. 2006

Firstpage

7

Lastpage

9

Abstract

We propose a novel configuration for a highly integrated and highly sensitive optical biosensor. The basic element of our sensor is a surface plasmon interferometer consisting of a thin layer of gold embedded in a silicon membrane. We investigate the performance of our sensor by simulation using eigenmode expansion. We calculate that refractive index changes in the order of 10^-6 RIU (refractive index unit) are detectable for a component of length 10 mum. Moreover, we illustrate that the operation wavelength of our sensor can be tuned to a desired wavelength for a wide range of environmental refractive indices, making our device suitable for chemo- and biosensing

Keywords

biosensors; elemental semiconductors; gold; integrated optics; light interferometers; metallic thin films; optical films; optical sensors; optical tuning; refractive index; silicon; silicon-on-insulator; surface plasmons; 10 micron; Au; Si; Si-SiO₂; eigenmode expansion; environmental refractive indices; integrated optical biosensor; optical tuning; silicon membrane; silicon-on-insulator; surface plasmon interferometer; thin gold layer; Biomedical optical imaging; Biosensors; Integrated optics; Optical interferometry; Optical refraction; Optical sensors; Optical surface waves; Plasmons; Refractive index; Silicon on insulator technology;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Group IV Photonics, 2006. 3rd IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Ottawa, Ont.

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0096-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/GROUP4.2006.1708147

Filename

1708147