Innovative planar plasmonic structure with grating coupling for Lab-on-a-chip chemical sensors array.
Project Acronym: ISens-Chip
Contract: PCE 78 /2022 (project number PN-III-P4-PCE-2021-0585)
Implementation interval: 31 months (02 June 2022 – 31 December 2024)
Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) phenomenon has demonstrated an efficient way to realize optical biosensors. At this time sophisticated instrumentation based on prism coupled SPR is commercialized however the prism coupling does not permit scalability and integration. The development of planar technology and multi-sensors integration on single piece of material made them applicable to lab-on-a-chip multi-functional platforms.
The grating coupling pave the way to planar technology in this way this project propose an innovative SPR multi-sensor concept based on grating coupling in four layer’s SPR configuration with plasmonic wave guide made of high refractive index amorphous chalcogenide film for detection of chemical and biological pollutants in liquids. Coupling of light is assured from backside through transmission volume holographic grating realized also in amorphous chalcogenide films which are photorefractive materials.
The proposed novel SPR structure have distinct properties which permit realization of miniaturized portable instrumentation and are suitable for lab-on-a-chip applications, namely: a) don’t contains moving parts, b) is highly sensitive, c) plasmonic interaction is realized by backside illumination, d) array of holographic gratings with periods selected to the specific bio-analytes assured multi-sensing on single chip, e) is suitable for process’s kinetic measurements f) is suitable for lab-on-a-chip integration due to planar technology.
The overall objective of the ISens-Chip project is to realize a SPR structure to detect bio-analytes.
The specific objectives are: Setting the technical requirements; Appraisal of the main characteristics of the components forming the SPR structure; Appraisal of the sensor response; Definition of the basic components of the demonstrator; Realization of the demonstrator; Demonstration of the sensor capabilities; Promotion of the project results.