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. 2017 Jul-Sep;7(3):185-191.

Optical Ring Resonators: A Platform for Biological Sensing Applications

Azadeh Kiani Sarkaleh  1 , Babak Vosoughi Lahijani  2 , Hamidreza Saberkari  2 , Ali Esmaeeli  1
Affiliations

Optical Ring Resonators: A Platform for Biological Sensing Applications

Azadeh Kiani Sarkaleh et al. J Med Signals Sens. 2017 Jul-Sep.

Abstract

Rapid advances in biochemistry and genetics lead to expansion of the various medical instruments for detection and prevention tasks. On the other hand, food safety is an important concern which relates to the public health. One of the most reliable tools to detect bioparticles (i.e., DNA molecules and proteins) and determining the authenticity of food products is the optical ring resonators. By depositing a recipient polymeric layer of target particle on the periphery of an optical ring resonator, it is possible to identify the existence of molecules by calculating the shift in the spectral response of the ring resonators. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the performance of two structures of optical ring resonators, (i) all-pass and (ii) add-drop resonators for sensing applications. We propose a new configuration for sensing applications by introducing a nanogap in the all-pass ring resonator. The performance of these resonators is studied from sensing point of view. Simulation results, using finite difference time domain paradigm, revealed that the existence of a nanogap in the ring configuration achieves higher amount of sensitivity; thus, this structure is more suitable for biosensing applications.

Keywords: Active layer; DNA molecule; optical resonators; sensitivity.

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Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Optical ring resonator as a biological sensing platform; (a) ring resonator is placed in an aqueous buffer solution. (a) There are no bioparticles in the buffer solution. (b) There are bioparticles in the medium. The bioparticles captured by the active polymeric layer interact with evanescent field of the light which results in a shift in resonance wavelength of the resonator
Figure 2
Figure 2
All-pass ring resonator and its typical spectral response
Figure 3
Figure 3
Add-drop ring resonator and its typical spectral response
Figure 4
Figure 4
All-pass ring resonator, (a) designed parameters, (b) spectral response
Figure 5
Figure 5
Sensitivity of the designed all-pass resonator. It is assumed that by adding bioparticles, refractive index of surrounding medium is changed from 1.31 to 1.45
Figure 6
Figure 6
Add-drop ring resonator, (a) designed parameters, (b) spectral response
Figure 7
Figure 7
Sensitivity of the designed Add-drop resonator. It is assumed thatrefractive index of the surrounding medium is changed from 1.31 to 1.45 by adding bioparticles
Figure 8
Figure 8
All-pass ring resonator with a gap in the ring, (a) designed parameters, (b) spectral response
Figure 9
Figure 9
Sensitivity of designed ring resonator with a gap in the ring. It is assumed that the refractive index of surrounding medium has changed from 1.31 to 1.45 as a result of adding bioparticles. Direct interaction between resonating mode and bioparticles in the gap region has caused higher wavelength shift
Figure 10
Figure 10
Wavelength shift due to refractive index changes from 1.31 to 1.45 as a function of nanogap size. It is assumed that for different gap sizes the separation between resonator and waveguide is constant
Figure 11
Figure 11
Extinction ratio as a function of nanogap size. It is assumed that for different gap sizes the separation between resonator and waveguide is constant
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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